Moderate to Severe TBI
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Intervention for Moderate to Severe TBI
Interdisciplinary Team Approach
Interdisciplinary Team Planning
When planning continued treatment
upon discharge from the hospital or rehabilitation center, it is helpful to
organize all the information about the child and conceptualize a plan based on
that information. Therefore the following format is suggested: Treatment Plan 
Interdisciplinary treatment of TBI
Recent advances in the cognitive
and behavioral neurosciences have allowed for a greater precision in the
definitions used in understanding brain-behavior relationships (e.g. terms used
to describe the various aspects of attention). Sohlberg and
Mateer(1997) have described the advantages of an interdisciplinary treatment
program. Comprehensive interdisciplinary assessment, treatment as well as
educational planning requires that all team members are describing problems,
strengths and interventions in an agreed upon manner. While the use of specific
terms to describe behavior have long been a characteristic of behavior oriented
interventions, neurorehabilitation experts have described the difficulties in
re-integration of the child into the school system.
Factors to Consider
The following are factors that we must consider
as a team when deciding treatment approaches for any brain injured child.
- Medical Factors prior to the accident that might affect rehabilitation.
- Psychosocial Factors existing prior to the accident that might affect
rehabilitation including Education/Learning Disabilities, Psychiatric/Chemical
Dependency and Family issues.
- Medications child is on that could adversely affect Central Nervous System
Functioning.
A Plan for Conceptualizing and Communicating
We then need to look
at the child from a team perspective in terms of his current status, appropriate
treatment plan and compensatory strategies if required in each of the following
specific problem areas:
- Arousal and Attention
- Orientation and Memory
- Language and Communication
- Visual Processing
- Motor Planning
- Executive Control Processes
- Psychosocial/Behavioral functioning
- Physical functioning