The Oliver Zangwill Center for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation

The Oliver Zangwill Center (OZC) for Neuropsychological Rehabilitation officially opened in November 1996, following 3 years of negotiations between Lifespan Healthcare National Health Service (NHS) Trust, the Medical Research Council, and Anglia & Oxford Health Authority Research and Development Initiative. The center was named after Oliver Zangwill, Professor of Psychology at the University of Cambridge between 1954 and 1984, and a pioneer of brain injury rehabilitation in the 1940s, when he worked in Edinburgh helping soldiers wounded in World War II (Zangwill, 1947). The program is modeled on the work of the Adult Day Hospital for Neurological Rehabilitation in Phoenix, Arizona, which in turn grew out of an earlier program based in Oklahoma City (Prigatano et al., 1986). Prigatano’s program was heavily influenced by Ben-Yishay (1978) and adopted a holistic approach. Christensen opened a similar center in Copenhagen in 1985 (Christensen & Teasdale, 1995). The OZC follows many of the principles laid down by Ben-Yishay, Prigatano, and Christensen, although it probably has a stronger commitment to research than the centers established earlier.