HappyNeuron Pro has the privilege of being a part of many rehabilitation programs across the America and the world.

WISE Employment, a national Australian non-profit employment support service, recognizes the whole community benefits when everyone is supported to achieve their potential. With their services, they have been connecting and empowering disadvantaged job seekers with employers since 1992.

Mental illnesses, such as depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, significantly affects a person’s ability to find and maintain work, with many people disconnected from their community as a result of unemployment. In 2018, WISE Employment established WISE Ways to Work, a comprehensive vocational rehabilitation and employment support program that provides a seamless continuum of support, assisting participants to transition from skills development to paid employment or other vocational goals such as study or volunteering.

Caroline Crosse, Anne Miles and team have adapted an innovative vocational rehabilitation program originally developed in Scotland by Fife Employment Access Trust, called Employ Your Mind. The six-month program has been designed to help people with mental illness build key skills for work and achieve their vocational goals, which for many is finding paid work. Employ Your Mind is WISE Ways to Work’s gateway program and leads on to a range of health management and employment supports.

Employ Your Mind is delivered in four phases. Participants of the program complete assessments coordinated by occupational therapists, participate in group and individual computer based cognitive remediation sessions, work on individual projects in an area of interest, and conclude with real-world work experience.

During Phase 1 of Employ Your Mind participants work one-on-one with their Vocational Coach for 1-2 hours a week for 6 weeks. This allows participants to get additional support if required and build self-awareness and engagement with the program. The Vocational Coaches learn about a person’s skills, interests, and core values and tailor the support plan accordingly.

HappyNeuron Pro is used during Phases 2, 3 and 4. These phases focus on cognitive skill development via individual and group cognitive remediation therapy. Participants work on their HappyNeuron exercises in the “Thinking Gym”, a small library of computers with sessions facilitated by the Vocational Coaches who assist participants on a one-on-one basis. This enables participants to increase their skill level over the weeks and progress to more demanding exercises over the course of the program.

Anne Miles, BOccThy, MSc

Senior Occupational Therapist,
WISE Ways to Work

Using HappyNeuron Pro, the Vocational Coaches can assign exercises according to a person’s plan and view results in real-time. The Vocational Coaches can then access a report of what exercises are completed or not completed by the participant. This can give insight into the cognitive skills they may be struggling with and obstacles they may be avoiding.

“[Using HappyNeuron Pro] is a really great way to understand what is going on with people. We can get information based on what they are working on, what’s important…Exercises that they are responding well to and areas they are avoiding. ” reports Anne.

Having a range of different exercises for participants helps maintain engagement and participation. Seeing their results on the screen after completing an activity is motivating for the participant and shows they are making progress.

All these features assist in tailoring the therapy to focus more on those skills that would benefit from development so that the participant is getting the most out of the session.