Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
negative sense (e.g., depressive mood, isolation, withdrawal, etc.). Active listening,
empathy, and the ability to reformulate in a shared language user/client require-
ments are the main instruments used by the clinical psychologist in this stage
within the interview. Furthermore, the psychologist might offer the opportunity
to reframe the relationship between the user/client and his or her family within
the framework of the new challenges, limitations, and restrictions they face with
the introduction of a new AT.
•
Phase 3. User support and follow-up (see Figure 8.1,
ψ
hexagon 3)
:
In this phase the
clinical psychologist assesses the match between the subject and the aid together
with the client. If phase 1 has been conducted rigorously with the psychologist
listening carefully to the subject, it is probable that this third phase will be a good
outcome to the process. It is also possible that in this phase events (external or
internal) in the life of the subject may occur that require a “revision”—a new
assessment phase—to reframe the first choice of aid. Factors of change can also
result from developmental facts (e.g., children with technical aids for learning dis-
abilities). Through the use of the clinical interview and tests, the psychologist will
conduct this
phase as a follow-up step in the process. We expect that particular
attention will be paid to the satisfaction of the subject as a measure of the efficacy
of the matching intervention that the psychologist and the client have conducted
together. Quality of life will also be a measure to be taken into account
.
8.6.2.2 Goals
The role of the clinical psychologist within the ATA center is mainly linked to his or her
diagnostic competencies and skills and the planning of the intervention. These are clini-
cal competencies: assess to know (in our model, assessing and knowing together) and to
intervene if convenient, useful, and necessary.
The first goal then is the identification of those aspects of psychological functioning
(personal factors) that promote and sustain the awareness of the subject with a disability
and that are supposed to mediate (1) the choice of a certain technical aid, (2) the acceptance
of the aid, (3) its use, (4) its use over time, and (5) the possibility to change it (for another or
none) if personality changes occur in the person and in case the that the aid is no longer
useful or suitable. In this context, another aspect on which the clinical psychologist will
work—compatibly with the cognitive psychological functioning of the subject with dis-
ability—is the possibility to improve the reflective functioning of the subject with the aim
of identifying aspects of the self (of the present and of the future) that mediate the use and
acceptance of the technical aid. The clinical psychologist will also detect and assess clini-
cal conditions significantly connected to the deficit that could hinder the intentional use
of the aid (e.g., depression in a boy affected by injury to the legs after a traumatic accident.
The boy does not accept the wheelchair that could help him to improve his autonomy
because he does not accept the limitation and he is ashamed and feels different from his
friends. He withdraws, does not go outside of his home and does not accept the aid wheel-
chair because it makes him feel different from others).
Tools used in the assessment phase can be used again in the follow-up phase as mea-
sures of the efficacy of the intervention. Other specific measures, such as the perceived
quality of life, will be used to verify the efficacy of the intervention, including measures
directly taken by the subject with disability (and/or by the caregivers) and measures taken
by the psychologist him/herself (or by an external member of the team). Other measures
