Occupational Therapy and Neuroplasticity After Brain Injury | Dr. Shawn Phipps | TEDxAlmansorPark

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the brain works in mysterious ways the brain works in even more mysterious ways when it is damaged I'm dr. Sean Phipps and I serve as the chief quality officer and associate hospital administrator at Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center I've also been an occupational therapist for over 21 years I want to take you on a journey with a patient I worked with at Rancho who was featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times Armando Rodriguez emigrated from Mexico to the United States at 18 years of age with a middle school education he got his first job as a dishwasher in a kosher Jewish restaurant he only spoke Spanish and eventually he learned some conversational English but to everyone's amazement Armando had learned to speak fluent Hebrew simply from listening to his customers and his co-workers in fact his boss said in the LA Times article that he spoke Hebrew just like an Israeli soon Armando became a chef a lead waiter and eventually the manager of the restaurant I mentioned that the brain works in mysterious ways so how exactly did Armando learn to speak fluent Hebrew without any formal education you see the brain has an incredible capacity for change but it requires challenge action practice and evaluation or Kate Armando intentionally challenged himself by heightening his awareness of what his co-workers and customers were saying he then took action by engaging with his customers and his closed co-workers by responding in Hebrew he made a lot of mistakes along the way for example the Hebrew word for salt is Mela and it's very similar to the Hebrew word for angel which is medula so our mondo did get a few laughs from his customers when he asked them if they wanted an angel instead of salt nonetheless Armando continued to practice each time he made a mistake or learned a new word and he would try it out on his next customer finally he would self evaluate his experience using Hebrew each day and develop a plan to improve his conversational skills and command of the Hebrew language folks this is what is called neuroplasticity which were it's a fancy word for what the brains extraordinary ability to change in response to challenge action practice and evaluation our mandos brain essentially found new pathways and reprogrammed itself to be able to successfully adapt to his work environment in order for him to obtain a high level of performance he had to continuously challenge his brain to higher and higher levels of achievement eventually Armando was successful of becoming the next restaurant manager because of his commitment to learning to speak Hebrew with his boss his co-workers and his customers now remember I mentioned that the brain works in mysterious ways but even more mysteriously when it's damaged so imagine that you're on a family road trip during the holidays it is dark cold and rainy and you find yourself dozing off to sleep how many of you here in this room have caught yourself following asleep behind the wheel simply because of fatigue and just in time you're able to divert your attention back to the road well Armando fell asleep behind the wheel and did not wake up he and his family were involved in a terrible car accident his mother the most important person in his life did not survive the accident and Armando was left with a severe traumatic brain injury he was in a coma for two weeks unable to open his eyes or respond to stimuli Armando is not alone according to the Centers for Disease Control prevention 1.7 million people seek medical care for traumatic brain injury in the United States each year costing 77 billion dollars annually motor vehicle accidents are the number two cause of traumatic brain injury after Falls and one out of every three injury related deaths are caused by traumatic brain injury luckily Armando was one of the survivors I had the fortunate opportunity to begin working with Armando of Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center when he emerged from his comatose state even though he had come back to life he was extremely confused and agitated he did not know who he was where he was or why he was in the hospital he also didn't recognize any of his family members which included 22 brothers and sisters and numerous extended family but there was one person he did call out for his mother so how do you help somebody who doesn't know who they are where they are and why they are in the hospital in armando's case every lobe of his brain was affected by the injury including this frontal lobe which is associated with reasoning planning speech movement emotions and problem-solving his parietal lobe it's associated with sensory perception and integration such as touch pressure and temperature as well as understanding spatial orientation movement coordination and information processing its occipital lobe which is responsible for visual processing and finally his temporal lobe which is associated with recognition of auditory stimuli memory and speech the brain controls everything from how we perform our daily activities as well as how we move communicate sense feel think and make decisions when I first started working with Armando he could not even attend to a simple task for more than a few seconds before his brain would be on sensory overload and then he would need to blow off his brain steam by walking around the hospital unit it was a bit like chasing after Forrest Gump with a trail of family and staff following him to ensure he was safe at all times I am sure he clocked more hours and more miles of walking the Forrest Gump did running from Alabama to California and back and each day I would work with Armando on performing this morning self-care routine and eat each day he got better and better at the most basic activities that we take for granted during each session my job was to present Armando with the just right challenge through active engagement in activities that we practiced over and over during each session I would provide Armando with feedback on his performance and I would also ask him to self evaluate his performance in terms of what went well and what didn't go so well so that he could carry out those activities with improved performance each and every time I also interviewed his family and work with them on establishing goals for his recovery I also noticed that in addition to Armando's large family there was an entourage of staff and customers from the restaurant he worked at that circle through the hospital all day long to visit Armando I saw the outpouring of support from his community and I wanted to help this man his life back and help him to get back to his role as a restaurant manager so I thought to myself we have a whole hospital unit full of patients and Armando had plenty of family members customers and co-workers visiting him each day and Armando was now at a point in his recovery where he was ready for that next challenge of transitioning into the community and returning to activities he needed and wanted to be able to do my challenge to Armando was for him to prepare and serve the patients his family the visitors and the staff a large meal in the dining area to simulate the busy restaurant environment he was returning - together we ventured into the community to walk to a local grocery store right down the street from the hospital where Armando needed to learn to navigate his environment and safely cross a busy street without getting run over he actively selected and purchased all the necessary items from the grocery store for the big meal and the next day Armando prepared and served that meal and of course his customers were very demanding and Armando was in charge of honoring all of their demands and giving them multiple opportunities for practice and feedback but he was so mad because he wasn't getting any tips but we were so happy that our mando was now in charge of his own recovery and that the restaurant owner was willing to have Armando returned to managing the restaurant so yeah pretty amazing so would you all like to meet this extraordinary individual all right Armando come on down [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Armando Rodriguez welcome to the stage to Donna Bella Kabbalah muchisimas gracias thank you very much for being here that was in Hebrew Spanish in English shabbat shalom he is trilingual Armando you will inspire millions of people from around the world with your recovery from traumatic brain injury what is your life like today well first of all I want to thank you very much in occupational therapy for giving me my life back I know it requires a great deal of passion and love to take care of customers or patients customers I'm sorry patients like me they have suffered a traumatic brain injury and right now you know I'm able and independent to do everything by myself as I did before better I might leave thank you very much I'm a lead server and a very well famous culture restaurant in Beverly Hills called slacking Ola and if I can do it you can do it this is sincere honor to work with your mundo thank you so much for sharing our story miss dance miss dance thank you very much so I hope everybody watching has enjoyed hearing the journey of armando's recovery from traumatic brain injury the brain does have the incredible capacity to change reorganize and develop new pathways after injury and for all of you that have learned a new skill or change to bad habit neuroplasticity was that play whether you have a mental health condition such as depression anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder or you or a family member has had a stroke or you were born with a condition that affected your brain like cerebral palsy there is hope remember that it's challenge action practice and evaluation that are the critical ingredients for success in occupational therapy and in neuroplasticity the beauty of occupational therapy so we have the ability to challenge the brain to bridge the gap from disability to recovery and Beyond through the therapeutic use of the ordinary and extraordinary meaningful activities of daily life to help people live life to its fullest thank you very much [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 83,302

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Science, Achievement, Benefit, Big problems, Brain, Cognitive science, Disability, Goal-setting, Health, Innovation, Life Development, Neurology, Neuroscience, Personal growth, Potential, Public health, Rebuilding

Id: AEzsxKQ3Gfc

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2019