Transition planning for youth with sickle cell disease: embedding neuropsychological assessment into comprehensive care.

Objective: Sickle cell disease (SCD) conveys a high risk of neuropsychological impairment due to chronic anemia, hypoxemia, cerebrovascular ischemia and stroke, in addition to causing pain and other biomedical complications. Few families accessed neuropsychological testing via the traditional referral system. In this paper, we describe a successful alternative strategy for addressing cognitive and behavioral needs of youth with SCD.