Case study B: 40-year-old man

This 40-year-old man suffered a head injury in a motor vehicle accident. He is married with a family and had maintained full time employment for a number of years as a lecturer. He complained that since his injury he is forgetful, loses things, has difficulty finding the right word to say, and feels uncomfortable in social situations but manages better in one-to-one situations.

During the interview this man sometimes seemed a bit vague although was very talkative and his conversation often went off topic. At the time of assessment he was keen to return to some form of employment due to increasing financial concerns at home. In his eagerness he was applying for a variety of part time positions, which he could get but could not sustain.

Findings from a neuropsychological assessment indicated:

• he had difficulties concentrating over time and difficulty keeping track of more than one
  thing at a time
• it was taking him much longer to complete things
• he was only able to learn small amounts of new information
• he was disorganised
• he had difficulty thinking of new ideas
• his reasoning skills were concrete
• his self monitoring was poor (verbose, off-track conversation)
• he was experiencing a high level of anxiety.

However he also showed:

• that his memory for old knowledge is intact
• he could remember the small amount of information he had learnt
• he has a good attention span
• he is able to problem solve at quite a complex level.

Questions

What could be recommended to help this man find and maintain employment? (Is he able to work?)

In reference to a work environment, what strategies might assist this gentleman to compensate for his cognitive weaknesses?

Strategies you could use with case study B