Dr. Hupka provides neuropsychological assessments in personal injury cases, fitness and competency matters, and criminal forensic cases. Areas of assessment include:
Assessment of traumatic (TBI) and acquired brain injury
Assessment of acute and chronic brain injury effects
Concussion and MTBI
Evaluation of functional abilities
Assessment of treatment needs
Dementia and competency evaluation
Individual, marital, and family counseling for post-acute brain injury issues of rehabilitation
and functional adaptation
Brain injury can result from many different types of injury or medical conditions. Traumatic injury to the brain such as in motor vehicle accidents or sport injury concussion can injure the brain even if there is no external observable damage. Some illnesses can also result in brain damage, as may occur in strokes or hypoxia. Congenital disabilities, and age related conditions such as dementia can impair brain function and reduce an individual’s ability to work or impair a person’s daily functioning. In these cases neuropsychological evaluation is used to assess both the presence of brain injury and the impairments that result from the brain injury.
Debilitating brain injuries are often not readily apparent to the outside observer. Often there is no externally observable damage, and this is different from physical injuries where there is readily apparent injury such as would occur with a broken leg for example. Because brain injuries are often “unseen”, neuropsychological testing is needed to determine the presence of injury and the extent of impairment of functioning. Assessment of symptom validity and functional issues is also and important part of any neuropsychological evaluation.
Neuropsychological evaluation involves a comprehensive assessment of an individual’s functioning, and typically includes testing of the following abilities:
- Attention and concentration
- Memory ability (short term, long term, verbal, non-verbal)
- Language ability (receptive and expressive)
- Visual spatial capacities
- Physical motor abilities
- Problem solving and planning (executive functioning)
- Social / interpersonal ability
- Psychological and emotional functioning
- Symptom validity
