Living life to the full following acquired brain injury
Communication Changes was founded in 2009 by Mary Ganpatsingh. Mary’s aim was to meet the communication needs of people who have survived acquired brain injury. Mary specialises in treating people with cognitive communication difficulties with the aim of providing therapy that enables people to return to family, social, work and leisure roles.
In the last 16 years, Mary has worked with over 60 people to achieve their personal aims that include:
- having better conversations with family and friends
- communicating independently in the community
- returning to leisure activities
- returning to work or volunteering
- returning to study
- growing into new roles, such as becoming a parent
- dating
To achieve these personal aims, Mary takes a client-centred approach. You will begin by talking about who you are and what is important to you. Mary will then plan all the therapy around people, activities and contexts that are important to you.
Developing simple and personal tools to support the client and those around them, Mary’s professional but relaxed style develops communication skills that the entire team benefit from. If we could change anything it it that we would have brought Mary into the MDT alongside the Psychologist and before the rest of the MDT. It doesn’t matter what the message you’re trying to communicate, if you don’t know how to communicate to the client,
Alan, husband of client, January 2024
Assessment and therapy
Mary has extensive experience in the assessment and therapeutic practices. She keeps up-to-date with current practice. Whilst recognising the use of standardised tests, it is now well established in the literature that owing to the complexity and heterogeneity of cognitive communication difficulties following acquired brain injury, standardised tests are not sensitive enough to the changes that survivors experience.
Mary is experienced in dynamic assessment, which means creating bespoke assessments, usually in everyday settings that are tailored to the needs of the person she is working with and challenge cognitive communication skills to identify where therapy should be directed.
Mary does not have a clinic base, although rooms can be booked if needed. Usually assessment begins in the client’s home and then sessions can be planned at home, in the community or in personally relevant settings. This has included cafés, shops, pubs, work place, activity groups, gyms, volunteer placements and other places.
Communication is also a two way process so assessment and therapy also involves working with significant people related to the client. This might be a partner, children, workplace mentor, friends, colleagues, university tutors or a personal trainer for example.
When clients are supported by rehabilitation assistants or carers, regular supervision and training will be offered.
Information for case managers
Since 2012, Mary has developed strong relationships with case managers, neurorehabilitation therapists across allied health professions and legal teams. In this context, Mary has been involved with people who are receiving rehabilitation in relation to medico-legal cases. She enjoys working closely with other team members and has a reputation for building a strong rapport with clients, who know that their individual needs are understood.
I have found Mary to be an excellent practitioner and an asset to my client’s team of therapists. She was able to work with the client on a 1:1 basis, understanding the client’s needs quickly and identifying goals with the client to work on. I particularly liked that Mary was client focussed. My client reported that Mary was fantastic to work with and progress was measurable and clearly defined. I would have no hesitation in recommending Mary to work with clients who have sustained brain injuries and hope to work with her again in the future.
Anna Fleming, Case Manager, April 2018
Mary always provides training and communication guidelines for rehabilitation assistants, using a variety of methods so that skilled support can be provided for clients by their own rehabilitation assistants. Where possible, this training is also provided to key conversation partners in the community through training and guidelines tailored to the particular settings.
Communication Changes 