Who we are
A team of clinician-scientists in clinical neuropsychology and clinical psychology. We are based in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada within the KITE-University Health Network and affiliated with the University of Toronto. We offer remotely delivered cognitive and mental health treatments to patients across Ontario living with chronic neurological disorders (e.g., persisting symptoms of concussion, moderate and severe traumatic brain injury, stroke, brain tumours). We also conduct clinical research and training. Click here for the Green Cognitive Neurorehabilitation Sciences Lab.
Our Mission
By integrating treatment, research and training, the KITE TeleNeuroRehab Centre for Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) aims to fill the enormous gap in treatment for patients in the chronic stages of their neurological disorder. We deliver group-based treatment to patients across Ontario, and integrate research into this care to develop novel treatments and to refine existing ones. To train the next generation of ABI clinicians and clinician-scientists in neuropsychology and psychology, our scientists and senior clinicians mentor graduate trainees and post-doctoral fellows seeking licensure with the College of Psychologists.
What Sets Us Apart
Focus on Chronic Stages of ABI
Our background research revealed that for many patients, there are declines during the chronic stages of ABI in brain structure and function, and in cognition and mental health. This led us to focus on treatment of patients exclusively in the chronic stages - anywhere from 6 months to decades post-diagnosis.
Verifying our Treatments Work for Everyone
We measure the impact of our treatments and retention of treatment benefits in patients by measuring a range of treatment outcomes, including quality of life, before and after treatment, as well as months later
No Treatment Costs to Patients
Our cognitive and mental health services are free of charge to patients. We are funded by research grants and the generous support of donors.
Training the Next Generation of Clinicians
As part of a teaching hospital and TeleNeuroRehab Centre, we train the next generation of clinicians and clinician-scientists. This includes training in neuropsychological assessment, cognitive and mental health interventions, tele-neurorehabilitation, and more.
Treatments rooted in decades of research
We have worked with patients with neurological disorders for decades (as well as their families and community caregivers), trying to identify risk and resilience factors for recovery. Everything we have learned informs the treatments we deliver and when and how we deliver them.
Our History
Our lab opened in the early 2000s, with a focus on patients with moderate-severe traumatic brain injury. We followed patients from their in-patient stay into the chronic stages of injury, and we discovered many things. Importantly, we learned that unfortunately, many of our patients were showing declines (brain and cognition) in the chronic stages of injury long after they had been discharged from our hospital, and second, that there is an enormous gap in treatment. We focused much of our research on how to deliver care remotely - for purposes of scaleability and cost - as well as in groups, for the same purposes, but also because of the known clinical benefits. Patients being treated alongside other patients experiencing the same problems and challenges, while looking for solutions together, often report important clinical benefits. We continued our basic research, while also studying our treatments as we delivered them - for example studying predictors of treatment response to understand who does and doesn’t respond to treatment, and why. As many patients allowed us to use their own data for research, this enabled us to continuously ensure our treatments are working, and to develop and refine new treatments. To date, we have had over 11,000 patients visits.