Feedback that Sticks: The Art of Effectively Communicating Neuropsychological Assessment Results

Feedback that Sticks: The Art of Effectively Communicating Neuropsychological Assessment Results

This book is about how to give outstanding feedback to patients, their family members, and other professionals. Effective feedback sessions have the potential to help patients understand their neurocognitive syndromes in the larger context of their real world environments and in a manner that positively alters lives. As our profession has matured, feedback sessions with patients and family members have become the norm rather than the exception. Nonetheless, many senior and even mid-career neuropsychologists were never explicitly taught how to give feedback. And despite the burgeoning neuropsychological literature describing sophisticated assessment methods and neuropsychological syndromes, there has been almost no parallel literature describing techniques for communicating this information to patients and other professionals. This begs the question: how have we learned to do this extraordinary task well? And how do we effectively communicate intrinsically complex assessment results, to deliver the type of salient feedback that alters lives? It turns out, the answers are like feedback sessions themselves - varied and complex. Feedback that Sticks presents a compilation of the clinical feedback strategies of over 85 neuropsychologists from all over the country: training directors, members of tertiary medical teams, and private practitioners. It offers the reader the ability to be a fly on the wall as these seasoned neuropsychologists share feedback strategies they use with patients across the lifespan, and who present with a wide variety of neurological and developmental conditions. Like receiving the best feedback training from 85 different mentors, the book gathers the most compelling, accessible ways of explaining complex neuropsychological concepts from a broad variety of practitioners. Through this process, it offers a unique opportunity for practicing neuropsychologists to develop, broaden, and strengthen their own approaches to feedback. "This very readable and interesting book is unlike any other neuropsychological assessment volume you are likely to read. I expect that most neuropsychologists give some kind of feedback to their patients: for example most will go through test findings with them; fewer, I suspect, will give information to the families; and even fewer are likely to think about the significance of providing feedback. This book should change all that. Before reading it, I had always assumed that the feedback I provided was reasonably inclusive, but the authors have taught me that there are many aspects to providing feedback that I had never considered. I learned a fair amount and will change some aspects of my professional behavior in the future." -- Barbara A Wilson, The Oliver Zangwill Centre, Ely, UK, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Feedback that Sticks is a compilation of the strategies and metaphors of over 85 senior neuropsychologists: compelling, accessible ways of explaining complex neuropsychological concepts to patients, their family members, and other professionals. It provides a unique opportunity for practicing neuropsychologists to develop, broaden, and strengthen their own approaches to providing feedback. Dr. Postal is a board certified neuropsychologist. She is President-elect of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology and past-president of the Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society, and the immediate past president of the Massachusetts Psychological Association. Dr. Postal is a lecturer at Harvard Medical school where she teachers postdoctoral fellows in neuropsychology. Her practice is dedicated to helping people think better in school, at work, and throughout later life. Dr. Armstrong is a board certified neuropsychologist currently working in private practice with an emphasis on pediatrics. Dr. Armstrong previously served as the secretary for the Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society and is currently a member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology. Used Book in Good Condition