Brainwave-R

Comments on:

THE INSIGHT WORKSHOP

Thanks so much for your recent inspirational and informative training course

I really enjoyed the Insight workshop last week and it was really well presented and delivered

Just a few words to say thanks so much to Kit and Anne for a very informative two day workshop. Left feeling very inspired

Just to say thank you for a brilliant course. I will be putting into place a number of changes to practice following this

This course was just so GOOD!

Thank you both very much for a very stimulating and informative experience

I now intend to use the change curve, which you showed us, with my clients

As a result of this course I will develop a structured questionnaire to help me assess the level of intellectual awareness during my inital interview

I have understood how important it is to ensure my communication style is direct and appropriate to the needs of my patients

I will use the diagram of the model of insight you provided and will mark where each of my patients is on it, as part of my assessment approach

The information from this course will help me to develop better hypotheses for treatment direction

This course has helped me to realise that dealing with insight problems is as much my responsibility as someone elses

As a result of this course I feel that I can be more confident that the behavioural observations that I make about my patients should be taken into account when formulating the treatment plan

I have realised that the whole team need to work together to formulate opinion about insight issues

This course has helped me to recognise that treatment for insight problems takes time - I had no appreciation it takes so long. It gives me confidence that the work I am doing in this area is actually moving patients forward on their journey to adjustment

I now intend to spend more time looking at insight more specifically; firstly I will examine it in relationship to the different domains of function, rather than dealing with it as a single entity

Just a short note to say that I really appreciate that you guys keep on coming to Norway to share your great knowledge and experience in the area of cognitive rehabilitation with us. The presentation/lecturing and the hand outs are done in a splendid way

Fabulous!

Excellent conference

Very applicable to OT's

Excellent! Thank you

I loved the workshop

Excellent, informative, worth every penny

Both Kit and Anne are excellent presenters

Excellent, professional and knowledgeable presenters

Wonderful, inspiring speakers - very dynamic, natural flow of presentation

Fantastic, knowledgeable, insightful

Well prepared, and Kit and Anne had lots of answers

Very well presented

Great sense of humour, obviously very knowledgeable and familiar with research

Excellent speakers

Kit and Anne were passionate and helpful with being able to apply material when I return to work

Excellent, fun, informative and thought provoking

Very energetic, funny, motivating presenters

Very good at training participants into different thought processes

Very organised, well laid out content

Great information and both speakers are great at breaking things down

As a result of this course I will change my documentation to include the awareness domains

I very much enjoyed your 2 day course in Vancouver last week. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge and experience which will certainly impact my clinical practice

I will use the Change Curve you showed us with my support workers and show them how to use this to help the patients in their adjustment

The model you have presented will help us in our team discussions about patients in relation to the Mental Capacity Act

I will use the model you presented to guide our setting of SMART goals with the patients, and it will be a great tool to aid the patients to visually understand where they are on their journey to adjustment

I intend to set a long term plan in my team to help us manage awareness; this will involve ensuring they have the necessary skill levels and will include training, courses, and documentation

I will incorporate the self prediction/evaluation approach you described into all therapy sessions. I think this will be an invaluable tool to help ongoing development of awareness in my clients

I will use the model of awareness you presented to guide my assessments and treatments

The course has given me a better idea of how and why I need to prioritise the various treatments that I do, based on the patients' level of awareness

The models you have presented on this course give me a great tool for risk assessment decision making

I now intend to put much more emphasis on developing therapeutic partnerships with patients in order to avoid confrontation issues

I will look at developing pictorial materials to support my treatment decisions

I will ensure the team can provide support to each other when approaching awareness and adjustment issues with clients

I will find the model you have presented very useful to help the relatives of my patients understand the awareness issues

The course has helped me understand why several of my past patients have had such major insight problems - I can see how their divided attention deficits led to this

As a rehabilitation assistant the course has helped me understand why patients are not using their strategies; I can see now how this is not due to laziness or awkwardness and how it is actually part of their brain injury. I will now feel much more confident to voice my opinions in clinical meetings as the course has given me the knowledge to help me back up my observations and views

I can take the information from this course and use it on Monday

We can't wait to get back to work to try all this out - it's great!

I have realised how important it is to begin to work on developing awareness in patients at the acute level of the patients journey

The course has helped me understand the interaction between cognitive/executive/linguistic, and psychosocial aspects, with awareness development. I had not fully appreciated this before attending the course

As a result of this course I will change the way I report on insight - I will incorporate the levels, amounts and domains you showed us

I think this model is really practical; it allows me to see exactly what to do with my patients and explains why

I will try to get the whole multi disciplinary team involved in educating the client about his/her brain injury. I can now see how essential this is

As a result of this course I will ensure my goals are more specific for awareness. I feel confident in being able to do this now - a great thing to gain from the course

I have learned that I need to spend more time and effort on educating my patients appropriately. I will go away and consider the most appropriate format, terminology and timing, and how to ensure repetition and good coordination in this process throughout the whole MDT

I now intend to look into the use of groups to help in the process of developing awareness

As a result of this course I intend to do much more specific awareness training for the families

I now intend to be much more structured and organised in the plans our MDT sets up for developing the clients' awareness

This course has given me the framework around which I can organise what I am already doing in this crucial area of awareness training

I have found the model you presented on this course to be invaluable. I intend to keep a copy of this near my desk at all times so that I can ensure that I am using it in my day to day work

This course has given me the insight that I need to be much more direct with my patients. I will go away and explore this in my dealings with my patients

I am aware that our team currently skirts around the issues of dealing with awareness, moving towards a new sense of self and breaking bad news. This course has really highlighted this for me and I intend to return to our team to discuss how we can do these things better

I have learned how important it is that the whole MDT all work to the same end e.g. some of our team tend to think patients are denying things, whereas others focus on lack of awareness. This course has really clarified the major differences between these constructs and how treatment differs for them both

As a result of this course I intend to go back and review our services to ensure that we provide awareness work in our community support level of rehabilitation. I assumed, incorrectly as it turns out, that this work had been completed earlier in the patients rehabilitation. I realise it is something that needs to take place throughout the patients journey

I now intend to educate people early on in my treatment

I will use the model you have provided on the course to enable me to be more precise in my treatment of insight. It will also help me be more aware of where my patients are at in terms of insight and thereby direct me in how to give more appropriate therapy in all other areas

The material on this workshop is very real and applicable to the field

This workshop exceeded my expectations. It provided me with very real, practical ways of offering services to my clients

A very worthwhile course!

This workshop exceeded my expectations! It was very motivating and gives me new ideas to bring back to my group

The speakers were excellent

This course exceeded my expectations. Excellent speakers and materials. Well worth the money

This was the best workshop I have taken in 10+ years. Great job all around

Well presented workshop

Excellent workshop

Very enlightening course. I see this will reshape my methods of practice. Thanks

Great quality of presentation

Kit and Anne were fantastic. I appreciated the usefulness of the information presented, the examples given and their senses of humour

This was an exceptional workshop. I can't wait to share it

Well done! Instructive, leads to further inspiration to improve practice. The 'simple' approach to a complex issue is one that can be immediately integrated into daily practice

Thank you! I am excited to go back to work and share this information with my co-workers and try it out in practice

Excellent speakers and excellent presentation

Fantastic course!

Excellent course, very practical information, very useful

The overall quality of the experience and the speakers were excellent

I really enjoyed the 2 days; I think the speakers were great, the information was clear and well presented, and I have come away with lots of good ideas that I will put into practice. Thank you!

Excellent presentation. I will be able to apply this information in many ways

This was a GREAT workshop - very practically minded - based on solid evidence

Great assessment tool. Thankful to have something concrete to use that is fairly simple and easy to understand. I have a new understanding of insight and awareness. I have a way to measure and work on helping to improve these issues for TBI clients. I would recommend this course highly to others

I liked how the information was transferable to different professional practices. It was presented in a fairly accessible format. I think this workshop achieves your goal of education that can be used on the very next work day

We will now ensure that our service professionals all speak the same language at each level of the service. We will achieve this by sharing the information you have provided on this course with other members of our team

The course has shown me that it is not possible to expect a patient to apply compensatory strategies until a certain stage of awareness development. I now understand why I got stuck in treatment with one particular patient who I was expecting to compensate for his problems, when he was only at the basic intellectual stage of awareness

The model you have provided will help me involve the team in the awareness issues rather than it just being downloaded to the psychologist - which is the normal attitude of therapists (this comment was made by a psychologist!)

I work in the medico legal arena - the model you have provided is an excellent tool which will help me see where the person is at and their potential, and even more importantly provides me with an objective way of describing the type of service they need in concrete terms

I work in acute care and I now understand that my relationship with the patient is of paramount importance

The tool you have provided is concrete and visual for everyone - especially the client. Many people are doing the things intuitively that you have taught us, but the model helps us show in a concrete way why we are doing these things

I am now anxious to get back to work to see if the patients sit where I think they are on the model

As a result of this course I will do more observations to ensure emergent and anticipatory awareness aspects of awareness are also measured in my setting
Thanks to you both for another truly inspiring and motivating workshop. Brilliant. Using CRT principles has enhanced my practice so much - its a though someone has switched on a light bulb somewhere! It was great that my colleague could be there too this time - we've come back and our brains are buzzing

Your course was undoubtedly one of the best, if not the best course I have ever been on for TBI, and most relevant

I intend to use the framework presented on this course to guide the team in their efforts to improve the insight of our patients

I now realise the need to introduce more formal counselling approaches at an early stage in our rehabilitation programme, in order to help the clients when we broach topics related to their problems

Much of my effort has gone into teaching strategies to my patients, and there are times when I seem to be plugging away at this without getting anywhere. This course has shown me why this happens, so I will certainly be using the approaches laid out for us. In addition the couse explains the whole problem with generalisation very clearly

I will now video tape all my sessions with patients in order to use the material for feedback purposes with the aim of improving insight

I really like the models presented on this course and will adapt them to my setting

In terms of breaking bad news to my patients I will endeavour to be more honest and direct now by giving the patient clear and realistic timeframes. This will enable us to manage the patients expectations better and will also help less experienced members of the team to feel comfortable with doing this

I intend to look more closely at supporting the relatives. I need to examine things from their perspective as I now realise this is probably hindering the progress of some of my patients. The question I am asking myself is: How can I help the relatives gain awareness at the same rate as the patient?

I like the frameworks you have presented on this course and I will now download the assessment process from your website to help me apply what I have learned over these two days

I intend to use the tools you have given us on this course to educate my staff and to help explain the patients' level of insight

I will now photocopy the model that we were given on this course, pin it on my wall, and then use it to educate the multi-disciplinary team about awareness issues

As a result of this course I will now try to be more direct with my patients. I can really see how important this is now for them to progress

I have realised I need to spend more time regularly reiterating the following with my patients: treatment aims, the problems we are working on, and the purposes of the therapy. In fact I intend to do this every session from now onwards

I will now be more specific and direct in my work with the relatives

I intend to obtain more information from Headway so that I can use this with relatives - as recommended on this course

I now intend to educate my other OT colleagues, nurses and consultants about these awareness issues because I can now really see how essential it is that we all understand what we are doing in this area

As a result of this course I will educate my patients about the levels of awareness we were shown in the model

Now that I have been on this course I feel better equipped to approach one of my current patients in a different way. I feel I have been stuck in what to do; I now have a way forward that I feel will help him

As a result of this course I now have the confidence and knowledge to stand up for what I am doing to help awareness grow in my client group, when I am challenged by other members of my team

I am going to go away and develop some structured open and closed questions that the team can use with our clients. We will write these out and train all staff to use them

I am going to develop a standard questionnaire for awareness which we will be able to use at the referral point. I will also ensure the team are more thorough in not assuming that this has been done at an earlier stage in the patients' journey. This needs to be checked and it is our responsibility

I will be able to use the model you presented on the course to justify extra long term resources for my client group

The assessment process you have given us is very logical

As a result of this course I will now develop a structured assessment process in my team, so that we can improve on the current more general approach we have in place to develop awareness

I now have greater confidence in adding awareness as a rehabilitation goal. There is a tendency to wait for this to develop rather than actively dealing directly with it. The course has shown me the importance of awareness and given me tools to use to incorporate this as a key element in our treatment programme

This course has given me more insight into trying to understand the patients and to devise better ways to help them - particularly for difficult patients

We will now structure our assessment of this area of functioning in more detail, by looking at what we currently do and how we can modify this

The course has made me realise how important the family is in helping develop awareness

The course has made me realise how important education is, so I will review what I do with this

I will be less confrontational with patients who are in denial and will look at why I get frustrated with patients who do not progress

The course was great and I am quite excited at the implications for improved treatment at our unit. Have already started implementing some of the ideas

Once again I found your course very instructive and stimulating, managing to consolidate and broaden the small amount of knowledge that I already had

Describing to a colleague why I find your courses so uplifting and thought provoking, I said that I felt it was because you are two therapists actually working hands on

You are able to put across, in a language I can understand, the reasons why, and how best, to deal with daily problems that confront. Most importantly you are able to put across the point of view from the brain injured person's side, something that is often forgotten

The course was excellent

It really focused my thinking in this area, and made me realise it was an area that we didnt have a structured approach to, but that we certainly have to address.

The course was inspiring and poses our team and services a challenge

I really enjoyed the course. It's given me a lot to think about - as a professional (nurse) and as a member of a community TBI
team.

In one survey 92% of respondents stated that the information covered in the course was very relevant to their overall personal development

In one survey 100% of respondents stated that the handout material was up to date, relevant and clearly presented

In one survey 92% of respondents stated that the course was excellent (the other 8% said it was good)

This course increased my knowledge tremendously

The course gave me a structure for things that were not hanging together in my clinical practice

It improved my understanding of awareness and the importance of assessment and treatment of this crucial area

I am now better able to integrate issues around insight into my overall management of brain injured patients

I have learned loads

I will be changing my clinical practice and feel that this course has answered so many questions I have had

Because of this course I will be able to explain more clearly what problems patients with insight difficulties will have in dealing with their deficits post injury

This course has altered the way I will assess and treat my patients

I now aim to take the ideas and model to my team for discussion in order to ensure a structured approach to assessment and treatment of insight problems

I will attempt to address awareness and denial issues at an earlier stage in my patient management

The team will now try to identify patients on the model of awareness presented on this course, so that we can begin a more structured and directed treatment programme with realistic goals

I will now look more at issues of loss and grief with my patients

I have learned how important it is to be more open with my patients and their relatives to help raise their awareness. I intend to do this by providing them with more information

Excellent and very very relevant

Very comprehensive course

Core examples and analogies used throughout were useful

Brilliant. I really enjoyed it!

I would just like to say how helpful I found this course. If I'd had it a year ago it would have saved a lot of mental anguish on my part and the clients

Excellent course

I honestly felt the presentation was excellent

I very much liked the use of examples which helped me to understand the models used and the treatment approaches