Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
TABLe II.1
Chapters
of Section II
Chapter
Topic
6
The Cognitive Therapist (Olivetti Belardinelli, Turella, and Scherer)
7
The Special Educator (Zapf and Craddock)
8
The Psychologist (Meloni, Federici, Stella, Mazzeschi, Cordella, Greco, and Grasso)
9
The Psychotechnologist (Miesenberger, Corradi, and Mele)
10
The Optometrist (Orlandi and Amantis)
11
The Occupational Therapist (de Jonge, Wielandt, Zapf, and Eldridge)
12
The Pediatric Specialist (Braga, de Camillis Gil, Pinto, and Siebra Beraldo)
13
The Geriatrician (Pigliautile, Tiberio, Mecocci, and Federici)
14
The Speech-Language Pathologist (Hill and Corsi)
The Joint Committee states that
When cognitive, communication, emotional, and psychosocial domains are affected,
the team should include at least a clinical neuropsychologist or rehabilitation psycholo-
gist, and speech-language pathologist. Team membership will vary with the age of the
persons served, the type of impairment, the stage of recovery, and the special training
of team members (2007, p. 4).
Thus, there is considerable consistency in these two views of the rehabilitation team, the
first from Singapore and the second from the United States.
The nine chapters presented in this section (Table II.1) focus on and describe the role of
many professions in the rehabilitation of persons with disabilities and their match with
appropriate assistive technologies.
Each chapters was written by an international expert in his or her area of specialty. What
unites these authors is not only their commitment to optimal rehabilitation outcomes, but
their perspective of the biopsychosocial approach to the assistive technology evaluation,
selection, and provision.
Conclusion
The best rehabilitation outcomes are achieved when individuals with shared perspectives,
but representing different areas of knowledge and skill, pool their expertise to derive
interventions that meet the personal, psychosocial as well as physical needs and preferences
of the individual with a disability. This teamwork also needs to be brought to bear on
the selection and provision of assistive solutions. Each of the contributors to this section
describes how this can be achieved from the viewpoint of their training and practice.
References
Chua, K. S. G., Ng, Y.-S., Yap, S. G. M., and Bok, C.-W. (2007). A Brief Review of Traumatic Brain
Injury Rehabilitation.
Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore, 36
(1), 31-42. Retrieved from
Annals.edu.sg website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17285184
