New Zealand Rehabilitation Association, Inc.

Mark Ylvisaker died on 24th May 2009 and he will be greatly missed. An obituary written by Tim Feeney, Mark's good friend and colleague is available on the Brain Injury Association of America's website.

If you ever heard Mark speak at a conference, you would have been impressed, amused, interested, challenged and informed. If you ever had the opportunity to talk with Mark, you would have been even more impressed, amused, interested, challenged and informed. There are a number of reasons for this being so including the most obvious - Mark was a superb communicator. He managed to engage with people regardless of whether he was one to one with a client or a colleague or talking to several hundred people in a conference or training setting. He also seemed to me to be a truly authentic and humble man: never deviating from what he felt important and meaningful; never grandiose despite what many of us might think good reason to be at least a little self impressed; and always truly present despite the many and varied demands on his time. This authenticity is absolutely visible in his writing, a legacy I urge you to interact with if you haven't already.

The first paper I ever read by Mark (and Tim) was called Reflections on Dobermanns, poodles, and social rehabilitation for difficult-to-serve individuals published in Aphasiology in 2000 (vol. 14, no. 4, 407-431). Of course the title is itself clever and lures you in, but the actual paper not only lures you in, it keeps you coming back for more - well it has kept me coming back for years. I read the paper not long after finishing my PhD exploring the transition from hospital to home for people with significant brain injury (both traumatic and non-traumatic). From that study (and from an increasing number of other studies) it was apparent that many people found it very hard to live a life post injury that ‘fitted' with their pre-injury idea of themselves. Mark and Tim eloquently describe a process of what they call ‘binkification' as potentially contributing to that experience. OK - ‘binkification' is a made up term (a fabulous thing to do in an academic paper) but it makes sense when you read the paper I promise. One of the challenges to rehabilitation in this and many other Ylvisaker et al. papers, is that as professionals, we may create some of the difficulties people experience when we try to ‘make people fit our rehabilitation processes' rather than ‘making rehabilitation processes that fit the people we serve'. Mark's argument that one's sense of self plays an integral part in regaining a life after injury or illness is persuasive. His argument that working with someone in their rehabilitation means really working with ‘them', not simply delivering a service or ‘package' of care, is a challenge we could all do with every now and again I suspect, despite our protestations that of course - this is what we always do.

I mourn the loss of this great man and many of the rehabilitation community in NZ will be saddened by the news of his death. As Tim Feeney states in the obituary mentioned above - ‘we are all bereft'. His commitment and contribution to advancing knowledge, to challenging assumptions, to improving practice and to friendship has made a real difference. Our thoughts go out to his family at this sad time.