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Here you can find details of our upcoming Conference along with how to register and book accommodation. We also include full details of the past Conference including the Conference Report and program.

 42ND Annual Brain Impairment Conference - 2019

Nau mi, haere mai! Welcome!
Ngā mihi nui kia koutou katoa. On behalf of the organising committee, you are warmly invited to the ASSBI/NZRA Inaugural Trans-Tasman Conference 2019 at Shed 6 in Wellington NZ incorporating the 42nd ASSBI Annual Brain Impairment Conference and the
Bi-Annual New Zealand Rehabilitation Association's Conference - 2nd - 4th May 2019. The 4 half-day workshops are on Thursday followed by the 2-day conference. The  conference centres on the World Health Organizations's Rehabilitation 2030 strategy A Call for Action. We will be discussing raising awareness about rehabilitation, making rehabilitation accessible and affordable, meeting unmet needs, reducing health inequalities, and providing effective, responsive service. Part of the conference will focus on the particular needs and interests of people with brain impairments, reflect the specialists interests of ASSBI.  We will also have a streams for general rehabilitation topics including musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiac, pain, and cancer related rehabilitation, reflecting the interests of the New Zealand Rehabilitation Association.  Click here for your invitation to the conference in wonderful Wellington

Looking forward to seeing you in Wellington
A/Prof William Levack - Convenor

Registration is now OPEN but closes on 26th April

The full conference programme can be downloaded here, it will not be printed so if you want a hard copy print it off and bring it with you. There will, however, be an App. If you are registered you should have received an email with information on how to download it. I recommend you do this prior to leaving for the conference.

CONFERENCE SUMMARY PAGE

PROGRAMME

SPEAKERS

COSTS

REGISTER

Invited Speakers

Professor Jonathan Evans - Scotland, UK

Jon Evans is Professor of Applied Neuropsychology at the University of Glasgow and honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Jon was the first Clinical Director of the Oliver Zangwill Centre for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation in Ely, Cambridgeshire. In 2000 he was awarded the May Davidson Award by the British Psychological Society in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of clinical psychology within 10 years of qualification. He is now Programme Director for the MSc in Clinical Neuropsychology programme at the University of Glasgow. Jon has published more than 170 papers, books and book chapters in the field of cognitive neuropsychology, neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation. He is a past Board Member of the International Neuropsychological Society and current chair of the INS International Liaison Committee. He is an Executive Editor of the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and is a co-author of the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome and the Cambridge Prospective Memory Test. In 2018 Jon was awarded Fellowship of the British Psychological Society and also awarded the BPS Barbara Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to clinical neuropsychology.

Jon will give a half-day Workshop entitled: Rehabilitation of memory and executive functions after brain injury which will update participants on the evidence base for the rehabilitation of memory and executive functions after brain injury. A particular focus will be on prospective memory and goal management, which rely on the integration of memory, attention and executive functions. Current developments in the use of reminding technology will be discussed including ApplTree, a reminding app designed for people with brain injury; interactive voice-based guidance, and the use of augmented reality.

He will also present a one-hour Keynote Address entitled: Music, mindfulness and positive psychotherapy after brain injury which will discuss two strands of his work on the rehabilitation of mood and cognition after brain injury. The first strand focuses on the application of the principles of positive psychology in the improvement of wellbeing after brain injury. The second will describe his recent work on the use of music listening and mindfulness in improving cognitive recovery following stroke.

Professor Fiona Jones - England, UK

Fiona is Professor of Rehabilitation Research at St George’s University of London and Kingston University, and the founder and CEO of ‘Bridges self-management’. Since developing the Bridges programme for stroke she has also carried out studies to explore self-management support for people with traumatic brain injury and long term neurological conditions as well as exploring professional attitudes and factors influencing sustainability of using programmes within rehabilitation. Bridges Self-management approach is now used within more than 200 acute and community rehabilitation teams and approximately 4000 healthcare practitioners have received training to integrate self-management into everyday rehabilitation and care.  Fiona has published several articles on self-management and self-efficacy and supervises a number of doctoral students who are carrying out research related to self-management across all fields of rehabilitation. Fiona is currently the Chief investigator for an NIHR funded study,  ‘CREATE’  which started in January 2016 and uses Experience–Based Co-Design to explore ways to increase therapeutic activity in stroke units . Fiona was made a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in 2011 and was the President of the UK Association of Physiotherapists in Neurology from 2013-2017. She received an MBE for services to stroke rehabilitation in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2017.

Fiona’s keynote talk is entitled ’Feeling less alone’: co-producing self-management support following traumatic brain injury her talk will focus on the added value of co-production with people with ABI and their families. Her workshop Integrating self-management support in a brain injury service: lessons learnt and secrets of success will provide a more practical guide about how to integrate self-management within a brain injury service.

Dr Matire Harwood - Auckland, New Zealand  

Matire Harwood’s background is in primary health care and rangahau hauora Māori.

She is the Director for Tōmaiora, Māori Health Research, and Senior Lecturer at the Auckland Medical School; editor for the Māori Health Research Review; and GP Champion for Primary Care Health Targets at Counties Manukau DHB.

Dr Harwood sits on the Board and Māori Health Committee at the Health Research Council, and the Māori Advisory Committee for Auckland / Waitemata DHB.

Other recent roles include Clinical Director at Tamaki Healthcare PHO; Deputy Chair for Te ORA (Māori Medical Practitioners Association); previous member of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation, and Health and Disability Ethics Committees.

Matire has recently been honoured with a fellowship in the 2017 L'Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science programme for her research in addressing the inequities of health-related outcomes between indigenous and non-indigenous people.

Professor Fary Khan - Melbourne, Australia

Fary Khan is the Director of the Rehabilitation Services and Clinical Director of the Australian Rehabilitation Research Centre, Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is Clinical Professor, at the Department of Medicine, The University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor, at the Disability Inclusive Unit, Nossal Institute of Global Health, & School of Public Health and Preventative Medicine, Monash University. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the National Aging and Research Institute and the Melbourne EpiCentre, The University of Melbourne. Currently, she is Chair of the Disaster Rehabilitation Committee, International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) and Chair of the Disaster Rehabilitation -Special Interest Group, Rehabilitation Medicine Society of Australia and New Zealand (RMSANZ).  She is also independent elected member for Rehabilitation Medicine for Asia and Oceania Region for the past 4 years. In 2 decades she has built research capacity in rehabilitation for neurological, oncological, trauma, disaster management, women’s health and other conditions; and holds over 20 international and national executive and academic appointments, including Executive member, the WHO- Liaison Committee for Capacity building, the Women’s Health Task Force and Cancer Rehabilitation Network, ISPRM.

She has a leadership role in rehabilitative care in Victoria and has extensive experience in clinical and health services research in patients with neurological conditions such as stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, Guillain Barre Syndrome; and musculoskeletal disorders, oncology and others. She has overseen various major research projects (including 15 RCTs) and has published over 350 research articles in academic journals including evidence based reviews in rehabilitation (include 20 Cochrane reviews), over 20 book chapters. She has over 50 international invited, plenary or keynote lectures and 10 plenary presentations She is also executive member of the Cochrane Multiple sclerosis and Rare Diseases Group and Editorial Board Member of Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, Journal of ISPRM and  peer reviewer of over 15 academic journals in rehabilitation.  She currently supervises 7 PhD students at the University of Melbourne. She has received numerous awards including the Sidney Licht Lectureship Award 2018, ISPRM, for her contribution to the advancement of international physical and rehabilitation medicine field; the inaugural Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) award and Melbourne Health ‘Research Medal’ for her contribution to research and mentoring.

Fary will give a half-day Workshop and a Keynote Address

Professor Robyn Tate - Sydney, Australia

Robyn is Research Professor within the John Walsh Centre for Rehabilitation Research, Kolling Institute of Medical Research at The University of Sydney.  She was founding co-editor of Brain Impairment (1999-2014), the official journal of the ASSBI, and has been an Executive Editor of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation since 2010.  Robyn led an international team in developing the Single-Case reporting guideline In BEhavioural interventions (SCRIBE) and was a steering committee member for a similar project: the CONSORT Extension for N-of-1 Trials (CENT).  She was also on the WHO ICF steering committee to develop ICF Core Sets for traumatic brain injury.  Robyn leads the Brain Injury stream in the John Walsh Centre.  Her research agenda builds upon her clinical experience over many years in the rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury.  Current research interests include instrument development, evidence-based clinical practice, and the methodology of single-case designs.    Robyn is widely published, with more than 220 scientific publications, and has mentored many research students.  In 2017 she received an award for Excellence in Higher Degree Research Supervision from the Northern Clinical School, The University of Sydney. Robyn’s interest in instrument development spans many decades.  She has developed three psychometrically-validated instruments for traumatic brain injury.  In recent years she conducted a systemic review of 728 instruments to measure function after traumatic brain injury, and wrote a reference book containing more than 150 instruments to measure outcomes after acquired brain impairment.  Since 2000 she has collaborated with colleagues in contributing to the body of evidence-based practices by developing PsycBITE (www.psycbite.com; the Psychological Database of Brain Impairment Treatment Efficacy) which contains more than 5,500 records, and publishing 36 systematic reviews, practice guidelines, clinical trials, and single-case experiments.  Her work on single-case methodology includes the development of two critical appraisal instruments, two reporting guidelines in the CONSORT tradition, a model of clinical practice, and a co-authored book tailored to both clinicians and researchers conducting single-case research in the neurorehabilitation setting. In presenting the ASSBI Presidential Address, entitled Measuring outcomes and monitoring progress in the era of evidence-based clinical practice, Robyn will be integrating all the above themes of her recent research activity.