rehabilitation neuropsychology
a specialty area that studies and treats cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and social disturbances in individuals following stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, and other conditions involving neurological damage. The goal of rehabilitation neuropsychologists is to optimize the health, independence, and quality of life of their clients by (a) evaluating their executive functions and other abilities through observation of their behavior and administration of assessment instruments (e.g., neuropsychological tests); (b) providing cognitive retraining and other clinical interventions to facilitate skill reacquisition or substitution; (c) training and educating other professionals involved in their clients’ treatment; (d) participating in the development of public policy and other programs to benefit their clients; and (e) advocating on behalf of their clients (e.g., with insurance providers). The field is cross-disciplinary in
nature, having relevance to such areas as community psychology, clinical psychology, counseling psychology, family medicine, health psychology, neurology, and psychiatry. See also clinical neuropsychology; cognitive rehabilitation.