Patient Stories

The High Achievers Program Helps a Senior Banking Executive Get Back to the Work He Loves

Underlying condition: Traumatic brain injury

Background:

Hugh was a senior executive at a multinational bank and a Harvard graduate when a devastating cycling accident turned his world upside down. Seriously injured with a serious brain injury, Hugh spent a week in a medically induced coma as his family and friends feared for his life. Happily, Hugh recovered physically and was swiftly admitted to an intensive outpatient cognitive rehabilitation program at a world-class hospital.

Traditional cognitive rehabilitation programs work well for most patients, but not for a considerable number, who either leave because of a bad fit, or are discharged with cognitive disabilities that interfere with their lives. Hugh was one such person.

One particular challenge posed by the traditional therapy approach is the fact that it is designed to address a group of deficits relating to activities necessary for daily living. Within the traditional framework, patients progress to more complex tasks only when they become proficient at performing more basic activities.  In Hugh’s case, the typical exercises he was being asked to do were difficult for him and seemed completely irrelevant.

Hoping to find a better fit, Hugh began working with a neuropsychologist. While better than his prior experience, the therapy was much closer to what he needed, but still too far off the mark.

Eight weeks after beginning therapy and with little progress toward cognitive recovery, Hugh’s company arranged for his transfer to Neuro-Hope at the suggestion of the nurse managing his case for the insurance company. She had prior experience with Neuro-Hope and believed the customized approach would work well for Hugh.

Keys to Hugh’s recovery

“Hugh was two people in one body,” recalls Dr. Elliot Cole, Neuro-Hope's founder, and a member of Hugh’s team. “In our first interview, Hugh was in a typical cognitive fog. He sat slumped in an armchair and had difficulty answering questions about his life. But when we started talking about his work, Hugh became a different person.” 

The team saw Hugh's demeanor change dramatically when discussing his professional life. He sat up, and his body language changed. Suddenly, he was able to answer questions in detail, with confidence and a different intonation in his voice.

“It was as if he was a different person,” Dr. Cole remembers. “We knew at once that work-related activities and socialization with his colleagues had to be integrated into Hugh’s therapy.”

Neuro-Hope’s approach is strongly patient-centered, and as a new client begins working with their therapy team, the therapists make a point of learning what makes that person tick. Understanding the client’s interests, passions and hobbies enables the team to create an engaging therapy framework that is powered by the client’s intrinsic interests.

 Rebuilding connections and returning to work    

Initially, the team focused on helping Hugh and his family work through a major source of frustration: Hugh’s difficulty in keeping track of the many friends and colleagues who visited him each day. Knowing who was coming and going was a source of frustration for him and keeping him updated on his schedule required a lot of help from his family.

Working with both Hugh and his family, Neuro-Hope developed an app that told Hugh who had been to visit, and who was coming, and when. With support from his family, who updated the app for him, Hugh consulted the schedule frequently, enjoying his visitors and becoming increasingly social in his interactions.
 
When Hugh expressed an interest in seeing more of his friends and colleagues at work, it was arranged for him to go into work for a couple of hours a day, a few times a week. One day, Hugh reported to his therapist that he had been invited to join the weekly portfolio review while there, and he had no trouble following the discussion around the table. This was a breakthrough in his therapy and would frame the rest of his treatment.

From then on, each week Hugh was given a copy of the briefing book which detailed the status of the bank’s loan portfolio. He would review the briefing book with his therapist for a couple of hours at a time, reading and interpreting the data, and explaining it in detail to her; she had no background in that content, but took cues from his speech that he was confident in the material. Feedback from his colleagues also indicated that Hugh was on track.

Hugh began attending the weekly portfolio review meetings regularly, where, from the very first week, he was asking questions and making relevant comments. Over time, Hugh increased his hours at the bank and was able to take on some responsibilities. Eventually, he was assigned a difficult project which he completed with success, and shortly thereafter, Hugh was able to return to work full time.

Why the High Achievers Program works

High achieving individuals like Hugh excel at activities conventional cognitive rehabilitation is unprepared to address, preventing them from reaching their overall potential.

In the stair-step (easy to hard) structure of traditional cognitive rehabilitation, Hugh’s inability to excel at ‘simple’ tasks was preventing him from reaching next steps and his overall potential. With Neuro-Hope’s unique therapy model focusing on relevance and engagement rather than arbitrary levels of difficulty, Hugh was able to demonstrate, nurture, and enjoy his cognitive capabilities in areas that were important to him.