When you get a referral, read the person's medical records. The following information is related to the ability to function:
- Diagnosis.
- Natural course of the disease.
- Complications or side effects causing brain damage.
- Chemicals (medications, street drugs, alcohol, chemotherapy, radiation, smoke, carbon monoxide, arsenic, lead, poisons) that cross the blood brain barrier.
- Rate and direction of change, e.g. therapeutic dosage, prescribed dosage, recent medication changes, half-life of chemicals as related to the time it takes to wash out of the body.
- Additional hearing, vision or physical impairments.