Traumatic Brain Injury in European Children - Challenges in Multidisciplinary Care and Transition

Background and aims: Improvements in neonatal and paediatric care mean that more children with complex needs are surviving into adulthood, placing great challenges on healthcare delivery. This paper will present the preliminary findings on the health and social care needs of these children at the community interface, using traumatic brain injury as a tracer condition.

Methods: Date to explore optimum care for these children were gathered across the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) as part of a Horizon 2020 funded project Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) running from 2015-18. Country agents compleeted a survey on care processes and interactions between health and social care professionals and parents/carers using a clinical case scenario method.

Results: A number of key issues in the integration of the care for the adolescent with TBI emerged in thsi study to date. These include: limited inclusion of the young person in the planning of their care, limited engagement of family asdvocacy groups, significant absence of policies and procedures to support transition to adult services and limited engagement in data collection to understand the experience of the adolesent and their family.

Conclusion: The preliminary results suggest that there are limited structures and processes in place to support integrated care delivery to children following a traumatic brain injury across the EU /EEA. Further research is required to explore both regional variations and equity of provision of integrated care for this group of children.