Introduction

This is an exciting time to be involved in neuropsychological rehabilitation (NR), and the production of this international handbook reflects the rapidly growing interest in and development of knowledge, new treatments and assessment procedures from around the world aimed at improving the lives of people with an acquired brain injury whether caused by an accident or by an illness, whether static or progressive. There has been a recent acceptance that no matter how impaired people with brain injury are, and whatever their particular problems might be, there are improvements to their lives and the lives of their families that can be made. This handbook reflects a rapidly growing expertise among therapists that is being stimulated by specialist academics in higher education and by their subsequent involvement in neuropsychological rehabilitation ‘at the coalface’. The contributions in this handbook are informed by rigorous research conducted by both academics and practitioners, sometimes working separately and sometimes working together; and by the clients themselves and their families. Indeed, an overriding principle in the work described and explained in this handbook is that rehabilitation after brain injury is at its most effective when researchers, practitioners, and clients and their families work together to find solutions to problems caused by an injury to the brain.