The purpose of the funding is to provide initial support towards the establishment of an Inter-disciplinary Assessment and Rehabilitation Centre for Excellence. This center will be initiated between the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC), Multi-Health Systems (MHS), Rehabilitation Research, Education and Evaluation Services (RREES), with consultation and data collection support by RTW Integrated Health Management (RIHM). It is anticipated that UTSC would take the lead role in mental health and traumatic and brain injury populations,
whereby the organizations would collaborate with respect to dual/multiple diagnostic/impairment/disability populations and the development of assessment tools. Evidenced based protocols for mixed rehabilitation populations would be developed. By validating the revised Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM), which is designed to identify patients who are feigning cognitive impairments from patients who have true cognitive impairments, the most commonly used measure to assess symptom validity would be improved, thus, reducing the effects of coaching within the legal system. Furthermore, further validating the dynamic validity of the Rehabilitation Outcome Measurement System (ROMS), which is a battery of clinical and rehabilitation oriented measures, will improve the assessment of functional outcome in these neuro/psychological examinations. TO BE CONT'D