Jennie Ponsford
Neuropsychologist Professor Jennie Ponsford AO (1976) has helped thousands of road accident survivors with traumatic brain injuries.
In 1976, Jennie Ponsford moved to Ormond from a smaller college and began to study psychology rather than social work. During that year at Ormond she discovered both the wider social circle she had been seeking at college and her passion for neuropsychology. After her undergraduate degree Jennie Ponsford was one of the first seven students to undertake a new Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology.
Fascinated by the brain and how little it was understood by Western medicine, she began working with patients recovering from head injuries, in a clinical and later research and teaching capacity. She became passionate about improving our knowledge of how people recover from such trauma and what can help their long-term outcomes.
To this end she helped establish studies tracking patients’ long term outcomes after their injury and the effectiveness of treatments devised in response to her research. Her research yielded critical insights into the particular challenge of fatigue, psychiatric disorders, and substance abuse for brain injury survivors, with substantial impact on both patient outcomes and further research.
In addition, Professor Ponsford successfully pioneered community-based rehabilitation, demonstrating the benefits of therapy conducted in everyday surroundings rather than in hospital. Each of these advances have had substantial benefits for head injury survivors.
As part of her longitudinal studies Professor Ponsford now has patients she has been working with for thirty years. She describes the satisfaction in sharing the long-term rehabilitation of patients rehabilitating after a brain injury and especially in helping young people to recover as well as they possibly can.
Reflecting on her contribution to the field, Ponsford feels fortunate to have begun ‘on the ground floor’ of an emerging field where she could make a disproportionate difference to helping patients’ recovery.
Now Director of the Monash-Epworth Rehabilitation Research Centre and Professor of Neuropsychology at Monash University, Ponsford remains passionate both about research and clinical work in which she can see the real benefits of her work for patients.
She describes her enjoyment in assisting young people recover to lead long and full lives as well as mentoring students and young researchers.
For Professor Ponsford, the key to a fulfilled life is finding and pursuing a passion. In her case, this passion and dedication has made a huge contribution to patients, researchers and the field of neuropsychology alike.
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