Cognitive Therapy
COGNITIVE THERAPY
What is Cognitive Therapy?
Cognitive functions can be defined as the ability to know, including awareness, perception, logical thinking, language, memory and reasoning.
These are;
- Attention (continuous, selective, scrolling),
- Perception (visual, spatial, auditory, tactile),
- Orientation,
- Memory (short term, long term, topographic-location memory),
- Administrative functions (problem solving and fast decision making,)
- Learning and using knowledge,
- Planning the acquisition of complex skills,
- Organization abstract thinking,
- Mathematical skills.
Cognitive functions are the mental processes that allow us to perform meaningful activities in daily life. We routinely carry out most of our daily work as a habit. Cognitive functions include a variety of routine and non-routine activities. Routine operations are automated processes that require very little attention. Non-routine operations are the operations that require attention control mechanism to focus on the new process. It requires practical application until non-routine operations are settled. New situations require planning and problem solving in order to achieve the goal.
Cognitive process information is important in activity performance analysis, activity limitations and participation limitations. In cognitive dysfunctions, habits, routines and roles of people are affected.
What is the Role of the Occupational Therapist in Cognitive Therapy?
Occupational therapists are experts in determining how cognitive problems affect daily activities, social interactions, and routines. Tasks of the occupational therapist,
- Assessment of safety, independence and performance ability in self-care activities
- Maintaining balance
- Educating family and caregivers
- Acute care follow-up
- Intervention to address gaps in attention, problem solving, and perception, and to manage impulsive behavior
- It is the organization of basic daily activities such as eating, bathing, dressing, care.
Who Can Benefit from Cognitive Therapy?
- Cerebrovascular accident
- Cerebral Palsy
- Traumatic brain injury
- Those with brain tumors
- Those with a brain infection
- Alzheimer
- Dementia
- Parkinson’s disease
- Down Syndrome
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Developmental disorders
Cognitive disorders often cause functional problems in people with neurological problems. Decrease in activity performance may manifest itself with problems in recognizing objects or a disorder in sequencing of events. Individuals who do not know their family members, have difficulty in memory, do not answer the questions asked to them, and have attention problems are encountered. Therefore, the ergotherapy application framework determines not only the body structure and functions of the person, but also the cognitive performance skills and the necessary requirements for the activity according to the characteristics of the environment and the activity or the role of the person.
How Are Functions Evaluated in Cognitive Therapy?
Interview and observation evaluation methods are used first to understand the determination of the problem and the effect of this problem on the life of the person. It is then used to determine the effect of cognitive impairment more accurately by applying standardized screening and evaluation tests.
How to Plan the Treatment of Functions in Cognitive Therapy?
- Process training: Cognitive functions focusing on all functions underlying the component
- Strategy training: By focusing on compensatory approaches
- Functional activity training: To train daily living activities and cognitive functions
- Education: Cognitive rehabilitation is carried out in these 4 stages, with a focus on developing insight.
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPISTS enable the individual to be included in the society in a more independent and unrestricted manner with these individual approaches.
Occupational therapists play a vital role for adults with cognitive impairments, helping to facilitate new brain pathways and improving functional skills by adapting and retraining activities.Enabling people to participate more extensively in care, work, leisure and community activities, while reducing the burden on caregivers and community resources, improve their quality of life.