02 - Andrew Hill and the Person Behind the Brain Injury

09/12/19 • 57 min

How do we connect with people who have a brain injury? How do we not let our therapy devolve into power struggles? How do we help improve insight without crushing people’s hope? To explore these questions today, we’re talking with Andrew Hill.

Andy is a licensed clinical social worker in Missoula, Montana. Before his career in therapy started, he was offered a temp job working exclusively with adults with brain injuries, helping them with everyday tasks and skills. This temp job led him to a degree in social work from the University of Montana. While there, he completed a practicum at Community Bridges through Community Medical Center, a program that specialized in TBI recovery. He has worked in a variety of settings, and now works in private practice. His clinic, Missoula Therapy, provides in a variety of services and is currently the only practice in Montana specializing in traumatic brain injury recovery. His current client base is about 75% people with brain injuries and he is working towards working with brain injuries exclusively. He is the only psycho-therapist certified in brain injury treatment in the state of Montana. Through his work with people with brain injury, he has earned an honorary Blackfeet name, Awaasaapsii napikwan, which he explains in our interview.

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01 - Chris Clasby and the Dignity of Risk

In this episode, we speak with Chris Clasby, LCSW and Peer Advocacy Coordinator at Summit Independent Living in Missoula, Montana. Our conversation touches on what it means to be human, what it means to suffer, and how to find meaning in that suffering. Chris also touches on 2 valuable tips for clinicians- allowing patients to fully experience their emotions and allowing patients the dignity of risk. We also discuss the federally mandated independent living centers spread across the U.S. and how these centers can provide invaluable resources for patients as they transition through different levels of care.

Next Episode

03 - Josh Rubin, James Laskin, and the Learning Health System

What would it look like if, as a healthcare system, we were able to draw from data points from real experiences of real people around the world? What if we could magnify the power of existing medical research methods by incorporating a broader range of people, experiences, and perspectives, including those of practicing clinicians? One of the biggest challenges we face is bridging the gap between clinical research and clinical practice. The concept of the learning health system is not one magical platform that offers to solve this problem, but rather it is a way of thinking, of collaborating, and of experiencing the world that has the potential to radically transform healthcare. Join us in our conversation with Josh Rubin, program officer for learning health system initiatives at the University of Michigan Medical School’s first-in-the-nation Department of Learning Health Sciences, president and CEO of the Learning Health Community, and executive director of the Joseph H. Kanter Family Foundation. James Laskin, DPT also joins in on the conversation to provide the perspective of both a clinical research and a practicing clinician. Ready to have your mind shift and start answering some of the biggest questions of our time? So are we.