Hello to all of our Readers,

Winter officially begins this month of December! We hope that you are all staying warm during the holiday season.

We were very excited to be a silver sponsor at the 2014 ABI Conference hosted by the Toronto ABI Network on November 20 and 21, 2014. Thanks for stopping by our booth!

Our very own Occupational Therapist, Kathryn Decker, presented on impaired awareness (Anosognosia) following an ABI and how to work with the family and rehab team to improve the client's insight within the community. Kathryn demonstrated how choosing proper assessment tools to reflect on the client's awareness and developing proper treatment tools to improve awareness can assist with the client's overall performance, compliance, and family function.

If you would like to learn more about Kathryn's presentation, please feel free to contact us.

In this edition of the newsletter, we have chosen to highlight one of our skilled Rehabilitation Support Workers, Kris Mamaril.

After completing his Bachelor of Science in Psychology from The University of Toronto, Kris worked as a Personal Support Worker and then as an ABI Support Worker for individuals with developmental disabilities at Participation House in association with PHABIS.  After PHABIS, Kris spent 9 years working as a Rehabilitation Therapist in the Neurorehab Program at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI).

At TRI, Kris organized and facilitated psychosocial rehabilitation and social groups including hydro-therapy, ADL training, cognitive communication, problem solving, music appreciation, and social skills.

Kris brings his many years of knowledge and experience working with the ABI population to Galit Liffshiz & Associates as the Director of Rehabilitation Support Worker (RSW) Services. In addition to providing rehabilitation support to clients, he is also responsible for the management of all of our accomplished RSWs. To learn more about our RSWs, please visit our website.

In this month's edition we continue to highlight our Assessment of the Month. This month we have chosen to discuss the Career Occupational Preference System (COPS). The COPS is an assessment that explores and measures an individual's interests, abilities, and work values. It is used by our OTs as part of our Readiness to Return to Work assessment and when implementing a client's vocational re-training program.

To read more about the COPS, please visit this blog post written by Scott Wooder, OT.

In addition, this month we're sharing an interesting blog post about Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). This therapy is considered the "gold standard" for treatment of major depression and anxiety.

CBT explores the relationship of one's thoughts, emotions, behaviours and physical reactions and how they influence each other. At GLA, we have social workers, occupational therapists and rehabilitation support workers trained in the practice of CBT and how to utilize it with our clients.

You can learn more about CBT in this article written by Kelly Hunt, OT.

We hope that you have a safe and happy holiday season and a Happy New Year! We look forward to providing you with more news in 2015!

Best Regards,

Galit Liffshiz, MA OT Reg. (Ont.)

Expertise and Experience in Life Care Planning 

Designated Capacity Assessor

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