Kate Gould in Conversation with The Centre for Optimism: We asked Kate about her optimism and how optimism is the underpinning trait for her team's ground-breaking work.
Challenging behaviours, such as aggression, are a common and distressing consequence of brain injury. As well as interfering with the quality of life for the person, it is burdensome for families and carers, and many clinicians struggle and lack confidence in providing support.
There is a need for evidence-based treatments. Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) is an intervention approach with a focus on understanding and addressing the reasons the behaviours occur and proactively preventing the behaviours through changing the environment and teaching skills. PBS+PLUS innovatively combines PBS and a package of strategies specifically for thinking and communication problems often seen after brain injury. PBS+PLUS aims to help people build a meaningful life and work towards their aspirations as well as self-regulating their behaviour.
Relentless Optimism is at the core of PBS+PLUS: working flexibly, systematically and creatively together with the person with the injury, their family and team - there is always something that works!
Dr Kate Rachel Gould, BBNSc (Hons), DPsych (Clinical Neuropsychology), Senior Research Fellow, leads a theme of clinically applied, co-designed and translational research on understanding and improving life after acquired brain injury with the Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University.
Dr Gould is a scientist-practitioner, with her research synergistically enhanced by her clinical skills as a practising Clinical Neuropsychologist in community brain injury rehabilitation. She leads world-first projects on cybersafety, positive behaviour support interventions and psychiatric disorders in acquired brain injury.
In 2021 Dr Gould established the Positive Behaviour Service at the Turner Clinics, to support community treatment, teaching and evaluation of PBS+PLUS in practice. Dr Gould has published 27 peer-reviewed articles and two book chapters on brain injury and psychological disorders (cited over 1000 times, Source: Google Scholar). Her research has attracted over $2 million in funding.
