Goal Management Training (GMT)
Intro
Cognitive difficulty often presents as difficulty staying organized and completing daily; feeling overwhelmed, distracted, forgetful, and inefficient in the completion of daily tasks. These challenges typically relate to impairments in executive functioning. Goal Management Training (GMT) is an intervention designed to address these cognitive concerns, with the goal of improving functioning in daily tasks.
GMT has been shown to be effective with multiple populations including:
- older adults with mild cognitive impairment
- multiple sclerosis
- stroke
- affective (mood) disorders
- ADHD
- substance abuse
- post-critical care patients
Essentially, if executive functioning and attention is impaired by the condition, research tends to indicate that this is a reasonable intervention.
What is Goal Management Training?
- A standardized cognitive rehabilitation program grounded in neuroscientific principles
- Designed to help individuals with impairments in executive functioning improve their organization and ability to achieve goals.
- Developed by world-leading clinical researchers in the neuropsychology of executive functions
- Promotes a mindful, metacognitive approach to completing complex everyday activities by raising awareness of attentional lapses and reinstating cognitive control when behaviour becomes incompatible with intended goals
- Comprised of self-instruction strategies, self-monitoring exercises, cognitive techniques aimed at improving planning, prospective memory and cognitive control, mindfulness practice exercises, stories promoting discussion about executive dysfunction in daily life
- The ultimate goal of GMT is not only to assist with reduction in cognitive symptoms, but to provide the skills to return safely and independently to participation in pre-injury activities (i.e., work, school, household management, caregiving responsibilities, community mobility, leisure activities)
How is GMT administered?
- Our GMT program is structured into 15 one-on-one virtual sessions, held on a weekly basis with the occupational therapist.
- Participants in the program will receive an official GMT workbook to allow them to follow along with lessons and keep track of assigned homework.
- The main objectives of GMT are to train individuals to periodically “STOP” what they are doing, attend to task goals, evaluate their performance, and monitor or check outcomes as they proceed.
- The program includes components of education, interactive discussions to raise awareness of various aspects of goal management, tasks that illustrate goal management concepts in action, and homework assignments to facilitate the transfer of concepts to real life.
- In addition to the 15 sessions, a cognitive assessment is conducted both before and after implementation of the program to assess areas of challenge and evaluate change over time.
