Ask the Expert

About: Brainstreams 'Ask the Expert" section will feature a new expert each month. Each expert will focus on a particular topic and will answer one new question each week.

Please send us your questions relating to the topic of the month and check back to see if the expert has chosen your question to respond to.

Send your questions to: info@brainstreams.ca

Topics for 2012:

• Caregiver Support: Exploring resources within yourself and your community
• Brain Injury After Hospital: Making the transition from Hospital to Home

Topics from 2011:

• Reintegrating Students with Brain Injury Back to School
• Return to activity following concussion
• Experiencing Loss
• Difficulty with language (aphasia) following brain injury  
• Accepting the "New Self", Survivors Insight 
• Brain research 
• Integration back into society after a TBI, dating and relationships
• Adjusting to the "New you", Learning to live well with Brain Injury
• Managing Problem Behaviours

2012

January: Brain Injury After Hospital: Making the transition from Hospital to Home

Elizabeth Baron is the Regional Lead for Acquired Brain Injury Supports in Home and Community Care within Vancouver Coastal Health. In her current role, Elizabeth provides clinical practice support and education to community case managers across Vancouver Coastal Health and promotes the development and implementation of better practice standards in acquired brain injury. Her responsibilities include development of collaborative community partnerships and integrated services, community education, strategic direction and development of regional capacity for acquired brain injury, alignment with provincial initiatives, and promotion and prevention initiatives. Elizabeth is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, UBC Faculty of Medicine. (read full bio)

February: Caregiver Support: Exploring resources within yourself and your community

Karyn Davies is Coordinator of the Caregiver Support Program at North Shore Community Resources, where she works with a small team of gifted and delightful colleagues. She is honoured to know the stories and experiences of caregivers, to encourage and support families and individuals, and to promote community awareness of caregiver issues. (read more)

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2011

January: Reintegrating Students with Brain Injury Back to School

Robyn Littleford is the Department Head of the G. F. Strong School Program at G. F. Strong Rehab Centre, in Vancouver, BC. She has been teaching children and adolescents with traumatic injuries, including brain injury, since her appointment to the G. F. Strong School Program, almost 25 years ago, in February 1986. Assessment, teaching and reintegration of students with brain injury back to their schools have been a focus of her work. She has worked with college, school and school district staff across this province and has given numerous presentations and workshops on a wide-range of topics dealing with educating students with brain injury. She has also been involved in the development of numerous teaching materials dealing with the topic of brain injury. (read more)

February: Return to activity following concussion

Alice Rose has been the Community Intervention Coordinator of the Early Response Concussion Service at GF Strong Rehab Centre in Vancouver, BC since 2002. The Early Response Concussion Service is one of two concussion clinics for people aged 16 or over in British Columbia.Alice graduated as an Occupational Therapist from University of Toronto in 1975 and completed her Master’s of Education in community rehabilitation and disability studies at University of Calgary in 2002. She received the 2010 Ginney Fearing ‘Learning as a Way of Being’ award in recognition of curiosity, application of evidence-based practice, approaches and enablement of others. (read more)

March: Experiencing Loss

Janelle Breese is an author, speaker, and Registered Professional Counsellor with expertise in grief, loss, life transitions and brain injury. She is Editor of Headline magazine and the author of A Change of Mind: One Family’s Journey through Brain Injury and the upcoming book, Extraordinary Mourning: Healing for a Broken Heart. (read more)

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April: Difficulty with language (aphasia) following brain injury  

Dina Collins is a Speech-Language Pathologist with the Acquired Brain Injury Program, Outpatient Team at G. F. Strong Rehab Centre, in Vancouver, BC. She has been working with adults with traumatic injuries, including brain injury, since beginning at GF Strong in 1993. Providing assessment, diagnosis and treatment for people with communication difficulties, and working with a team of professionals to assist individuals in returning to the community - reintegration to home, school or work, have been the focus of her work.  (read more)

Mike Ruskin is a Speech-Language Pathologist with the Outpatient Team of the Acquired Brain Injury program at G.F. Strong Rehab Centre in Vancouver, B.C. He has worked for 23 years with adults with brain- injury having swallowing and communication difficulties. He began his career working in acute rehab at Shaughnessy and Vancouver General Hospitals. During the last 12 years his focus has been to collaborate with a team of rehab professionals to assist brain-injury survivors in reintegrating into their community, returning to work or school and in resuming some of the communication – related activities with which they have had difficulties since their injury.  (read more)

May: Accepting the "New Self", Survivors Insight 

Val Reynolds: Just over thirty years ago Val Reynolds was a passenger in a small vehicle her husband Don was driving on a BC highway as they headed for a not too distant family retreat. From the opposite direction, a semi-trailer ton truck, advanced towards them going too fast for the road conditions causing the truck to jack-knife into their lane, colliding full force with their vehicle. Don was killed while Val & their unborn child survived. Val's injuries were significant. In her own words, Val says, "...even though I suffered critical multiple injuries, it was the severe damage to my brain that would prove to be the most life-threatening and as I was to learn, the most life-altering." Val moved from surviving to thriving through years of participation in various therapeutic practices. (read more)

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June: Brain research 

Cheryl Wellington is Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Wellington obtained her PhD in Microbiology at UBC in 1991 and did postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, U of C, and UBC. She joined the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the UBC in 2000 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2006. Dr. Wellington’s research investigates lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in the brain and how this relates to neurological disorders. Dr. Wellington’s group has made key contributions to the understanding of the role of apolipoprotein E (apoE) in Alzheimer’s Disease and Traumatic Brain Injury.

Greg Goldberg is a Brain Injury Survivor, Inspirational Speaker and author. After suffering a car crash in 1998, Greg spent nearly a month in a coma, followed by a long journey of recovery. Life became fraught with challenges; initially struggling with impulsiveness, bouts of anger and fatigue. However, as the year’s progressed, Greg learned to adapt to his limitations and become proactive in managing and structuring his life so he can enjoy it to the fullest. Today, Greg is upbeat, cheerful and full of zest for life. He uses is experience of living with a brain injury to fuel his compassion and passion to help others with similar experiences. Greg currently volunteers with the Victoria Literacy Program teaching adults how to read. In addition, a portion of proceeds from the sales of his book “The Organ of Intelligence” go to Brain Injury associations and support group across Canada.

-- August & September break --

October: Adjusting to the "New you", Learning to live well with Brain Injury 

Ellen Connell is a Registered Clinical Counselor in private practice. She has been providing individual, group and family counseling services to individuals affected by brain injury (and other catastrophic injuries) for over 25 years. Ellen received her B.A. in psychology and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from U.B.C. Her thesis examined how direct and indirect survivors made sense of the experience of brain injury and living with brain injury She is the co–developer of a curriculum based mutual aid model for facilitating psychological growth and emotional wellness following a catastrophic injury. (read full bio)
 

December: Managing Problem Behaviours

Dr. Nicholas Bogod’s educational background includes completion of an Honours BA in Psychology at McMaster University, followed by M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in the University of Victoria Clinical Neuropsychology Specialty Track under the supervision of Dr. Catherine Mateer. He subsequently completed a Neuropsychology track internship at Riverview Hospital in the Neuropsychiatry and General Psychiatry Programs under the supervision of Dr. Grant Iverson, followed by a two-year Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology in the Neurosciences Program at Vancouver General Hospital. (read full bio)

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