Acquired Brain Injury Program

Overview

The Kluge Children's Rehabilitation Center (KCRC) at the University of Virginia Children's Hospital provides a comprehensive rehabilitation program for children from birth through 21 years of age who have acquired brain injury. Children are admitted at various stages in their recovery, including low-response patients being treated with medications to promote arousal and alertness.

At KCRC, each child is assigned a team that follows the child throughout his/her stay. The patient and family are an important part of the team. Parents and staff work together to determine individualized goals, and families are encouraged to participate in therapies and to stay with their children.

Family-Centered Care

Upon admission, and once initial assessments are completed, the team meets to share information and determine goals for the admission. Progress is assessed continuously and team meetings are held every two weeks to discuss medical issues, problem solve, make changes to the program, and plan for discharge. Parents are encouraged to attend and participate.

School Services

A unique programming feature at KCRC is the inclusion of accredited public school services. Children from birth through high school attend sessions held at bedside or in a classroom, facilitated by Master's level teachers. KCRC teachers contact the home school for information and assignments, enabling children to get credit for lost school time. Teachers also help children transition back to school following hospitalization.

Community Re-Entry

At KCRC, we are committed to providing community re-entry opportunities to better prepare children and their families for life beyond the hospital. This occurs toward the end of the child's stay. Patients and families have an opportunity to plan and participate in an outing in the local community under the supervision of a recreational therapist.

Interdisciplinary Team

Members of our interdisciplinary team include, but are not limited to:

Developmental Pediatrician
  • Leads the medical team that cares for children's health issues
  • Includes a faculty physician and physicians in training (residents and interns)
  • Prescribes medications, diet, etc.
  • Recommends specialists as needed
Pediatric Orthopedics
  • Acts as consultant to the pediatrician when broken bones are present
  • Assists with movement or posture issues
Neuropsychology
  • Assesses cognitive skills and processing
  • Assists with family coping
Nursing
  • Works closely with doctors and other team members to meet the child's needs
  • Monitors vital signs, elimination, food, and fluid intake
  • Administers medications
Nutrition
  • Assesses growth and nutrition issues
  • Works with team to resolve nutrition problems and promote appropriate feeding
Referral Case Management
  • Coordinates inpatient referrals for admission
  • Coordinates insurance certification and benefit related activities
  • Coordinates and arranges for discharge needs
Social Work
  • Provides support to families
  • Coordinates team meetings
  • Provides information on community resources
  • Makes referrals to community agencies
Speech-Language Pathology (SLP)
  • Focuses on communication, including both expression and comprehension
  • Addresses safety concerns of eating and swallowing
  • Addresses cognition, including thinking skills, orientation, attention, memory, organization, problem solving and reasoning
Education (Infants - 12th Grade)
  • Focuses on academic and developmental skills
  • Communicates with the child's home school
  • Provides learning opportunities and practice of newly learned skills
  • Coordinates special education services when appropriate
  • Assists with transition back to school after discharge
Occupational Therapy (OT)
  • Focuses on self-care, visual perceptual, and fine motor skills
  • Provides self-care training, including techniques to compensate for weakness, and use of adaptive equipment
  • Helps preserve and improve joint range of motion of upper extremities to support function
  • Addresses balance, posture, and movement in support of performing daily activities
  • Provides visual screening
  • Addresses handwriting and computer access and provides adaptations as needed
  • Focuses on improving thinking skills as they relate to everyday activities
Physical Therapy (PT)
  • Focuses on "gross motor" functioning such as walking, standing, and crawling
  • Helps improve and restore mobility skills, such as wheelchair mobility, crawling, walking, and climbing stairs
  • Helps improve transfer skills, such as getting into and out of bed, into and out of a wheelchair, standing up, and sitting down safely
  • Helps improve balance, coordination, strength, and motor planning as they relate to functional mobility
  • Helps preserve and improve joint range of motion of lower extremities
Therapeutic Recreation (TR)
  • Helps improve self image, behavior, cognition and coordination through recreation and leisure activities such as adaptive swimming, games, crafts, horticulture, and other social activities
  • Addresses future recreation pursuits through leisure education exercises
  • Assists with transition back to home through community re-entry outings

Other medical services may be involved such as neuro-ophthalmology, audiology, dentistry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, pain management, and prosthetics and orthotics.

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