136: From patient to provider: A crash course in concussion care with Kara Focht MS CCC-SLP, CBIS
Kara discusses her experience as a SLP graduate student turned patient, and how that experience shaped her SLP career. She talks about how she navigated graduate school with a brain injury, what helped her recovery the most, and how she now uses that experience to provide holistic and functional treatment for her patients.
Topics covered:
What it was like to be a SLP graduate student with a concussion
What I did/didn’t know about concussions before I had one
Navigating grad school while also getting treatment
What helped me the most in my recovery
Traditional medicine approaches such as a multidisciplinary approach to concussion care
Vision therapy
Health/wellness promotion (treating my vitamin deficiency, nutrition, exercise)
Boundaries: learning when to push myself vs rest
How my experience shaped my SLP career
What was missing from traditional concussion care
Functional therapy, Goal Attainment Scaling, Time Pressure Management
The importance of counseling skills
Complementary approaches; becoming a Love Your Brain yoga teacher.
the Discussion Guide
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Resources
ASHA continuing education course: Beyond Workbooks: Functional Cognitive Rehabilitation for Traumatic Brain Injuries
MedBridge continuing education course: The Functional Manifestations of a Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
SpeechPathology.com continuing education course: Integrating Mindfulness Techniques into Pediatric Speech-Language Pathology
Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire: https://www.baycrest.org/Baycrest_Centre/media/content/form_files/MMQ-Manual-2018_ebook.pdf
Yoga Resource: https://www.loveyourbrain.com/
Nutrition Resource: https://www.cognitivefxusa.com/blog/nutrition-for-post-concussion-syndrome
Sleep Hygiene Resource: https://www.brainline.org/article/sleep-and-brain-injury
Contact information:
Thanks for these amazing resources, Kara!
Kara Focht is an outpatient speech-language pathologist and certified brain injury specialist from Omaha, Nebraska. Kara got a crash course in concussion care after a bad fall during her first year of graduate school. Now Kara is passionate about providing holistic therapy to help other brain injury survivors navigate their recoveries.
Kara serves as the lead SLP for her hospital’s adult and child/adolescent concussion rehab teams. She enjoys developing her professional skills through mentorship, research, education, and teaching. Kara volunteers with the Brain Injury Alliance of Nebraska and other brain injury organizations. She’s also a Love Your Brain certified yoga teacher and cheerleader for complementary treatment approaches.
Kara started Rethink Speech Therapy in 2020 to organize everything that she’s learned about concussions. RST is a growing body of educational resources, interactive handouts, and functional therapy ideas for patients and therapists. Visit rethinkspeechtherapy.com or follow Kara on Instragram @rethinkspeechtherapy.
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