Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation
“Ask Me Anything” Employment Series
National Resource Center on Employment
You’re invited to ask an expert about another interesting topic related to employment!
On Wednesday, July 24, 2019, from 2:00-3:00 pm EST, Susan McGurk, via webinar, will answer any questions you have related to “Enhancing Thinking Skills for the Work Place.”
This free, online event is not a presentation but an interactive question & answer webinar.
Regardless of whether you are a person living with a mental health condition, a family member, an administrator of a service, a provider, a researcher — you can use the time to ask anything related to “Enhancing Thinking Skills for the Work Place” to our guest expert.
For example, you could ask about:
-
What techniques or approaches can be used to improve thinking skills?
-
How can people manage their cognitive challenges to optimize the process of getting and keeping a job?
Susan R. McGurk, Ph.D. is Professor of Occupational Therapy and a member of the Center of Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. McGurk directs a multi-faceted research program that addresses methods and mechanisms in cognitive remediation, the role of cognitive impairments in employment, academic pursuits, and independent living in persons with serious psychiatric illness, and in other conditions affecting cognition and community functioning. McGurk and colleagues have developed the “Thinking Skills for Work” Program, a multi-component cognitive remediation program combining restorative task practice of cognitive skills and the teaching of self-management strategies designed to optimize cognitive and work functioning in persons receiving vocational rehabilitation services. The results of a recently completed, NIMH-funded, two-site, randomized controlled trial indicated the ability of the Thinking Skills for Work program to improve work outcomes in people who have failed to respond to supported employment, the evidence-based vocational rehabilitant program. This is the first trial to date that has demonstrated the ability of cognitive enhancement program (Thinking Skills for Work) to improve rehabilitation outcomes in people who have failed to respond to an evidence-based practice (supported employment). Dr. McGurk has been the recipient of a National Alliance of Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) Young Investigator Award (1997-1990), a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award (2010-2012), the 2004 Rehabilitation Practitioner of Distinction Award by the National Rehabilitation Association, and the 2007 Gerard Hogarty Award for Excellence in Schizophrenia Research. She is the Principal Investigator of ongoing NIMH- and NIDILRR-funded randomized controlled trials evaluating the Thinking Skills for Work Program and other cognitive programs in persons with severe mental illness. Current research projects address the use of exercise to enhance cognitive remediation-related neuroplastic processes; tablet-based home practice of computerized cognitive exercises in people with schizophrenia seeking work; and a large, multi-site dismantling study of the specific components of cognitive enhancement that are essential to helping people with psychiatric illness achieve their employment goals.