A “brain gym” at a state psychiatric facility in Augusta aims to help patients improve their memory and mental competency.

Anthony Ahmed, a research psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University, is using brain-training computer games with forensic psychiatric patients who have been found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.

Ahmed helped create the “gym” at East Central Regional Hospital, where patients participate in a remediation program.

“We’ve used computers as the instrument to provide an intellectually stimulating environment” for patients with serious mental illness, he says. Just like people use a gym to work out their muscles, the forensic patients “work out”  their brains, building up their memory, problem-solving and organization skills, Ahmed says.

Here’s a GHN interview with Ahmed, courtesy of Georgia Regents University:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgoCKr8jjr8&hd=1[/youtube]