Life Care Planning for Children With Acquired Brain Injuries

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in children and adolescents in the United States. More than 60,000 children per year sustain a TBI sufficiently severe to require hospitalization, while many others go unreported. The most common causes of pediatric traumatic brain injury are motor vehicle collisions, falls, sports injuries, and physical abuse. Children also experience non-traumatic acquired brain injuries every year due to stroke, brain tumor, infection, post-surgical complications, etc. This article will focus on children who acquire brain injuries (ABI) from both traumatic and non-traumatic causes. For more than three decades, life care plans (LCP) have been used to document the future needs of children with chronic disabling conditions. The development of a wellconceived LCP for children suffering from the effects of a brain injury requires a unique perspective that does not pertain to long-term planning for adults. The life care planner must focus on future growth and development and project the child’s needs into adulthood and across the lifespan. In this complex endeavor, the skilled and experienced life care planning professional must have an understanding of the prognosis and available medical and rehabilitative treatments, as well as the resources available to the child and family to allow for access to education and transition to adult years.