CBIST Spotlight: Britney Cooper

Britney Cooper, MS, CCC-SLP, CBIST, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication disorders from the University of Northern Iowa and a Master of Science degree in speech-language pathology from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. She has worked as a speech-language pathologist (SLP) for at Opportunities Unlimited, a facility focusing on post-acute brain injury rehabilitation, for 16 years, and she has been program director for residential, therapy and nursing services for 10 years. She is an administrator for CNRS-RCF rehabilitation post-acute care. She has also provided SLP infant, pediatric, and adult services for over 14 years in various settings, such as outpatient, skilled nursing facility, home health, and hospital settings. She has increased certification with NMES-vital stim treatment for dysphagia therapy. Britney received her CBIS certification in 2012, and she has been a CBIST since 2019.

Why have you chosen a career in brain injury? Why are you passionate about brain injury?

I decided to work in the brain injury rehabilitation field because I wanted to make a difference and enjoy how every person served is different and their treatment plan is always changing and evolving based on their skills. I like being challenged and thinking outside of the box on ways to further an individual’s skills to better impact his or her life. It’s rewarding, impacting the outcome of someone’s life and knowing I played a small part in the outcome.

How has the field of brain injury changed in your time working?

There have been many changes to brain injury rehabilitation in the last 15 years. Increased access to AAC [augmentative and alternative communication] to support communication needs with advancing technology; in today’s world, it is imperative to have a way to communicate to access information and to have needs met. Advanced technology has provided so many new and accessible options that will work for all different skill abilities. Carryover for home programming and education has greatly increased. Brain injury rehabilitation is growing, with new technologies to support physical, emotional, and cognitive needs, and these technologies are allowing more access to adaptive devices at home, allowing for greater independence and community integration.

Why is having a CBIST important to you? How is it helpful in your daily work?

Having this certification assists with overall knowledge and understanding as well as training direct support professionals to work with people with brain injury. This also assists with oversight for one of the areas we serve at our CNRS homes.

What are some challenges you have faced working with individuals with brain injury?

One of the most challenging parts of brain injury rehabilitation is trying to keep people motivated for the whole length of recovery. Rehabilitation is hard and can be frustrating at times and helping a person move past the negative emotions and remain active in his or her recovery is hard. It is also challenging working with different levels of confusion to increase rehabilitation outcomes while working to decrease various levels of support. Having limited funding access for people with brain injury has been a challenge for a long time and continues to remain a barrier for a lot of persons served.

How can clinicians best support individuals, caregivers, and family members?

Everyone needs to have goals to work towards but having a realistic approach to how we will achieve the same outcome is very difficult to achieve and important for the person served. Recovery is an overwhelming process, where the unknown remains frustrating and intimidating. Setting small goals that are relatable for the individual and achievable, as well as explaining why in all tasks assist with gaining and maintaining the buy-in for participation in rehabilitation. Also, allowing failure to happen so the person served can learn though experience can be helpful but very difficult for caregivers and family to do. The education clinicians provide can only go so far and sometimes we must allow caregivers, family, and the person served to fail to understand what is being told to them and how we can best improve communication and support.

What do you see as the future of the brain injury field/research/education?

I think we will see a lot of change with the use of technology and more access to individualized equipment or treatment that people can do in their own home.