About TBI SOS
- Although hospitals treat children and adolescents with TBI in their initial course of recovery, schools, communities, and families ultimately provide long-term support and service to these children.
- When a child returns to school following a TBI, school personnel are typically underprepared and lack knowledge about brain injury; in many cases, they are not even aware that the child has been injured.
- Families are also ill-prepared to support their injured child at home; like most of the general public, family members know little about TBI, and tailored support and information are not generally available.
The goal of this project is to address challenges in pediatric TBI care by implementing and evaluating the effects of the TBI SOS 4 Kids model.
We will collaborate with Texas partners to adapt tools and training programs already developed and validated at CBIRT to meet Texans' individual, cultural, and linguistic needs.
The model has 4 components:
School
- Brain Injury Education Support Team (BEST) ensures effective school return with:
- Coordinated communication among staff and families.
- Monitoring of child’s progress.
- Staff professional development.
- BEST, within a school district, includes educators, health professionals, and parents.
- Members are trained in TBI support strategies for school children.
- BEST consultants offer on-site support for staff with TBI students.
- 'In the Classroom: Strategies for Success' program is available for TBI student management.
Community
The Community Outreach component offers TBI educational opportunities to parents, community members, and stakeholders.
The outreach team will lead specific educational events (e.g., Bike Rodeo, Picnic in the Park) to bring families together while educating about TBI prevention, identification and intervention.
The team will lead small group sessions at churches and community centers using a cultural adaptation of the Parents Taking Action (PTA) psycho-educational intervention.
Digital Platform
The TBI SOS digital platform is a tool for sharing data between healthcare providers, families and educators and will house all training materials and resources for families, educators and community members in English and Spanish.
The platform will be available with low bandwidth requirements for those in underserved areas.
All program elements will be compliant with Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act, incorporate state-of-the-art encryption and industry best practices, and follow regulatory requirements such as HIPAA.
Policy
- Children with TBI lack access to appropriate services and supports at school and in the community.
- Working with Texas stakeholders, we will:
- Identify and describe the barriers faced by children with TBI who need access to services
- Define goals
- Develop a plan for advocacy
- Describe needed policy/legislative action
- Work with the state to implement those policy changes
