MATRIX’S COMPREHENSIVE CLINICAL ASSESSMENT

The Matrix Rehabilitation Services assessment is a crucial step. It is unique because it is an integrated, multi-disciplinary (psychiatrist, internist, psychologist, field consultant) assessment that is conducted simultaneously by the Matrix clinical assessment team.

The multi-disciplinary evaluation is coordinated by the psychologist, who during the assessment, both evaluates the person’s functioning within his social environment and does a complete behavioural analysis of his dysfunctional strategies. The internist-rheumatologist at times will recommend complementary tests and /or medical examination. Matrix’s rehabilitation field consultant completes a home-function evaluation to establish a reference base of the patient’s daily activities.

A Final Assessment Report integrating all the above elements is drafted. The organization that referred the patient receives a comprehensive treatment plan proposal if the person is deemed to be a good candidate for the rehabilitation program. The integrated, comprehensive, multi-disciplinary approach undertaken permits Matrix to address the following questions in its Final Assessment Report:

• How is the patient currently functioning physically, emotionally and mentally?
• To what degree to well-defined medical factors account for the patient’s level of disability?
• Is the patient currently under optimum medical care?
• To what degree are psychiatric difficulties, such as anxiety and depression, contributing to the patient’s symptoms and consequent disability?
• What other variables exist in the patient’s environment, both at home and in the workplace, that can help explain the patient’s response to his/her disability?
• What is the patient’s prognosis and probability of returning to the workforce?
• Can the patient return to his previous job after completing Matrix’s rehabilitation treatment?

With these questions answered, the Matrix Rehabilitation Services comprehensive assessment allows employers and insurers to make the optimal decision with respect to the patient.

TREATMENT

The multi-disciplinary team that completed a comprehensive evaluation of the patient remains responsible for the patient and his rehabilitation treatment program. The psychological, psychiatric, medical and functional problems of the patient are addressed and treated, often in collaboration with the different medical or paramedical practitioners already involved with the patient.

THE PATIENT AT THE HEART OF THE TREATMENT PROGRAM

The patient is always at the center of the team’s concern and interventions. The specialists in charge of the patient’s file are always available to respond to his questions and concerns. The therapeutic decisions taken during the treatment program take the patient’s interests into account, while being mindful of the objectives established by the organization that referred the patient.

A COMPREHENSIVE APPROACH

Matrix understands and places great importance on factors that are likely to concern employers and insurers thus consider it essential that they be involved in each stage of the treatment program. Our statistics confirm the fact that developing an integrated approach, where all parties agree on the direction taken and adopt a unified position, significantly increases the probability of success. Matrix is thus careful to involve in its rehabilitation program, as appropriate, the employer and its medical staff, the insurer, the treating physician as well as any other caregivers (psychologists, medical specialists etc.) involved.

INTERVENTION

SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT

Rehabilitation efforts are most frequently conducted in clinics, far from the patient’s normal environment. Matrix treats a patient’s targeted problems in an optimal fashion by intervening directly in the patient’s regular social environment. Dysfunctional behaviours linked to the patient’s disability are thus identified and modified directly in this environment.

HOME ENVIRONMENT

The rehabilitation field consultant meets the patient at his home and works with him, and his family if necessary, in the home environment. The negative and counter-productive factors generated by the patient and related to his family and social environment can thus be identified and modified. This type of intervention in the patient’s home environment allows direct access to his daily activities. If the treatment plan calls for an activation program, this can be administered in a local fitness center. The rehabilitation field consultant will work directly with the patient to effect this activation program, meeting with him two or three times per week for a few hours at a time. The change in behaviours obtained in this fashion have a much greater chance of enduring as they have been effected in the patient’s normal environment.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

The rehabilitation field consultant accompanies the employee when necessary into his work environment, where he can observe and potentially eliminate factors contributing to the employee’s difficulties. If the latter is not feasible, situational role playing can be used to simulate the employee’s work environment. The objective always remains the identification and modification of dysfunctional patterns of thinking and behaving that are sabotaging the person’s return to normal functioning, including returning to the workforce.