Bridging gaps in care for children with acquired brain injury: Perceptions of medical and educational service providers.

Purpose: Significant gaps in service delivery for children with acquired brain injury exist between healthcare and educational systems, such as the lack of coordinated efforts to transfer rehabilitation strategies to school settings. This paper attempts to address these issues and offer recommendations to bridge these gaps in care.

Methods: The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM), Brain Injury-Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group (BI-ISIG), Pediatric-Adolescent Task Force constructed and disseminated a survey to medical rehabilitation (N= 44) and education professionals (N= 40). Responses were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, achieving > 85% inter-coder reliability.

Results: Results highlighted differences between groups in methods for seeking new information, opinions on advocacy needs, and differing priorities given to various resources.

Conclusions: These discrepancies have important implications for improved collaboration needed for assuring an appropriate continuum of service for this population. Recommendations include: 1) providing education and training regarding brain injury in the most cost-effective ways utilizing technology that crosses the barriers identified and reaches people in multiple settings; 2) direct and active communication between medical and educational professionals; and 3) developing an interdisciplinary Community of Practice to help bridge medical rehabilitation and school systems.