A holistic brain injury rehabilitation program for school-age children

In the field of pediatric neurorehabilitation, there is a dearth of well-defined models of care for children with brain injuries and research to support them. Literature reviews of both adult and pediatric studies suggest that programs involving a comprehensive and holistic approach to care may be particularly effective in addressing the issues faced by individuals recovering from acquired brain injury. The primary purpose of this paper is to propose a model of holistic neurorehabilitation for children with an acquired brain injury, and to describe its theoretical bases. The paper describes such a program developed at Children's Specialized Hospital in New Jersey, USA, and presents a brief synopsis of the program's philosophy, components, goals, and therapeutic interventions. In addition, the paper discusses the type of data necessary to demonstrate the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of such a program, and calls for future research to examine this.