8th Annual Jubilee: Conference on Practice
Session F-6

Rehabilitation of Central Nervous System Injuries:
Evidence-Based Approaches

Omar Ahmad, PhD, OTD, OTR/L, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he teaches courses in neuroscience, rehabilitation, and research. Additionally, he is the P.I. in the Virginia Gore Neuro-occupation Lab and presently heads up a multi-year research project titled: Morphometric Analysis of Dopmaine Neurocircuitry in Rats Bred to Prefer Alcohol, funded through funds from the Hubert and Richard Hanlon Trust.
His research interests include developmental neuroscience, stereology, degenerative and  acute neurological disease, and Educational Research. His areas of occupational therapy practice experience include acute care, neurological injuries, burns, and psycho-social occupational therapy.

Jeff Radel, PhD, University of Kansas Medical Center, is an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he teaches clinical neuroscience to entry-level and graduate Occupational Therapists and Physical Therapists, and pursues research related to neuronal plasticity and changes in brain function during brain development and after neuronal injury.

Tracy Morrison, OTD, OTR/L, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Objectives:

1. Identify evidence-based therapeutic approaches that improve functional performance following brain injury.
2. Identify typical and maladaptive changes in brain organization following brain injury
3. Apply evidence-based therapeutic approaches to case studies featuring person’s with brain injury.
   

Summary:
The workshop will focus on therapeutic approaches that influence brain activity and improve function.  Presenters will explore brain activity patterns, how they become maladaptive through trauma or disease, and how selecting appropriate interventions may remodel brain activity to yield adaptive patterns, thereby enhancing functional performance and satisfaction.