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This article aims to describe a joint collaboration between an occupational therapist and music therapist at the Royal Hospital for Neuro‐disability in Putney, London, UK. It outlines a series of sessions with a patient with hypoxic brain injury who was referred to the neuro‐behavioural unit for rehabilitation.

The joint work commenced due to a realisation that this particular patient responded well to sensory input and the music and occupational therapist wanted to offer the opportunity to explore this intervention further within a different framework of joint sessions. The article provides an overview of this input, which involved bi‐monthly hour long sessions exploring responses to and engagement with various stimuli within a frame of music, poems and storyline along the themes of the seasons. This ran in conjunction with other rehabilitation sessions on the unit.

The authors found that the patient responded to this format with the focus being on the creative framework and the interaction between the therapists and minimal pressure to achieve tasks. Of course there were still clear clinical goals and there was participation from the patient in order to improve functional abilities.

The overriding improvements in the patient from using this therapy approach were an increase in concentration span and attention and reduction in vocal distress and behavioural agitation. The authors surmise that there is a place for a package of sensorial input with suggestions for implementation which could be used for other patients in neuro‐rehabilitation in this setting or elsewhere.

Brain injury rehabilitation is often complicated or confounded by difficulties with engaging the injured party with the services and input required. Lack of awareness of cognitive and executive impairments is often implicated in this difficulty. Any technique or approach that enhances engagement may then support rehabilitation. The aim of this paper is to examine the current evidence base for the use of motivational interviewing (MI) as a method for increasing engagement by supporting the development of insight.

The paper is a literature review, taking as its basis Medley and Powell's conceptual review of MI and then examining the published evidence available.

Although attractive to practitioners in the field because the purpose of MI and the goals underpinning acquired brain injury (ABI) rehabilitation are co‐terminus, the theoretical and research findings to date that address the effective application of MI to ABI are inconclusive. The literature presently available suggests there is no conclusive evidence that MI is a more effective approach than any other, and that which is available makes little reference to the specific difficulties of an ABI population that may confound MI's application in this area.

There is currently no high standard of evidence to support the use of MI with people with ABI.

There are still very few papers written, or research undertaken, into the effectiveness of MI with people with a brain injury. Most of the work undertaken thus far is concerned with supporting behavioural change in this population when problematic alcohol or drug use is co‐morbid. This paper identifies some of the practical difficulties with the approach whilst recognizing the inherent value in its aims.

The paper provides an opportunity for practitioners who wrestle with the difficulty of engagement on a daily basis to reflect upon how present practice could be altered to increase the likelihood of supporting engagement.

This article aims to cover the experience of working with the new framework/criteria for specialist neuro‐rehabilitation services to meet the needs of patients with rare or complex conditions to achieve eligibility for a level 1 status.

Royal Leamington Spa Rehabilitation Hospital is currently collecting the full UK Rehabilitation Outcomes Collaborative (UKROC) dataset for all in‐patient episodes. A number of tools for measuring rehabilitation needs were gathered by the multi‐disciplinary team (i.e. costing of the service including staffing, building, equipments, etc.), and a range of clinical measures including needs: (the rehabilitation complexity scale); inputs: the Northwick Park nursing and therapy dependency scales (NPDS, NPTDA); and outcomes: the UK functional assessment measure (UK FIM+FAM) which are collated on the national UKROC database.

These measures have been used to assess the level of a patient's complex needs and to help formulate bandings, which are being used to inform national tariffs. A number of advantages and disadvantages have been acknowledged from the introduction of the new criteria and have been addressed in this viewpoint. As the current trend for services is to be paid (payment by results) depending on activity and outcome, it is essential to provide good outcome data to monitor performance and justify the units' effectiveness.

This paper outlines the authors' journey to achieve specialist commissioning and highlights the importance of monitoring and measuring the units' performance to reflect the continuous needs of the NHS and patients.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a work‐based, professional education series of workshops, focusing on issues of sex and sexuality training for health and social care professionals who work with adults with a moderate to severe acquired brain injury. The series of workshops were conducted by a trained psychosexual therapist and couples counsellor from Headway Brain Injury Association, and held at the Royal Hospital for Neuro‐disability in 2009 to raise health and social care professionals' awareness about sexuality issues for this patient population. A case study of the series is presented, which we hope will add to the discourse about the sexual needs of people with a moderate to severe acquired brain injury. Overall, participants were positive about the education and learning achieved within the workshop series.

This paper provides a brief chronicle of medicine and narratives, the aim being to understand the role of people's narratives historically, including how they have developed and changed over time, and in particular the rising interest in the neuro‐narrative. The paper ends by reflecting on what practicing physicians, nurses, therapists, and social care workers might want to think about when considering the use of narratives with their clients.

This paper aims to contribute to a general understanding of mental practice by investigating the utility of and participant reaction to a virtual reality maintenance training among underground coal mine first responders.

Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s Office of Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) developed software to provide opportunities for mine rescue team members to learn to inspect, assemble and test their closed-circuit breathing apparatus and to practice those skills. In total, 31 mine rescue team members utilized OMSHR’s BG 4 Benching Trainer software and provided feedback to the development team. After training, participants completed a brief post-training questionnaire, which included demographics, perceived training climate and general training evaluation items.

The results overall indicate a generally positive reaction to and high perceived utility of the BG 4 benching software. In addition, the perceived training climate appears to have an effect on the perceived utility of the mental practice virtual reality game, with benchmen from mines with more positive training climates reporting greater perceived efficacy in the training’s ability to prepare trainees for real emergencies.

This paper helps to broaden current applications of mental practice and is one of the few empirical investigations into a non-rehabilitation virtual reality extension of mental practice. This paper also contributes to the growing literature advocating for greater usage of accurate and well-informed mental practice techniques, tools and methodologies, especially for occupational populations with limitations on exposure to hands-on training.

The purpose of this paper is to review evidence for the importance of the wider society to combat mental health, long-term effects of TBI and the stigma and discrimination within the western society in particular.

In favour of the neurobehavioural framework, studies included in this review are those conducted under such settings.

Literature shows evidence of significant progress made under the neurobehavioural framework particularly, and, other intense rehabilitation schemes. Community rehabilitation is important for meeting emotional needs and furthering progress in this area, along side physical difficulties.

Access to all journal search engines was not possible in this case and thus there may be more research which may be useful in this paper. It is not based on any strict empirical evidence, however – it is based on experience and work in the field. More empirical research is needed in this area.

Implications of this paper are to stress the importance of social rehabilitation, the documentation of behaviour and rehabilitation outcomes including measurements of success.

Social implications are infinite. Increasing the knowledge of TBI is necessary to allow survivors to live in the community with dignity, understanding and support. Awareness of such social disabilities may increase tolerance and patience among those least experienced in this aspect of disability. Communities may become more accepting and thus accommodate more for those living with TBI and ABI.

There is less research on the qualitative data within services for rehabilitation in this field. A population whereby TBI/ABI symptoms and specific mental health sequelae coexist is less common and therefore can provide unique insight into the importance of community during rehabilitation.

Assistive technology is a term used to describe any device ranging from simple equipment to complex technologies that can assist a person with a disability. The term is now applied to new technological devices to facilitate active rehabilitation as well as to equipment to enable a person to live with their condition. Current developments such as technology for stroke rehabilitation are rarely brought to the attention of health and social care practitioners, even though frontline staff will be at the forefront of implementation, and their views of the nature of devices and their appropriateness is pivotal. This paper describes some of the technologies being developed to assist the process and delivery of stroke rehabilitation, their potential benefits in practice and stakeholder perceptions of these new technologies.