Paediatric Rehabilitation

The inpatient service is responsible for providing intensive rehabilitation to assist children in reaching their maximal functional potential. After a referral and initial assessment, children who may benefit enter the program. The program is goal oriented and time limited. At discharge there is a transition either to the Ambulatory Service or directly back into the community with referral to community based support services where available.

The Ambulatory Rehabilitation Service provides intensive rehabilitation to patients discharged from the Inpatient Rehabilitation Program and non-admitted patient and bridges the gap between intensive inpatient rehabilitation and less intensive therapy available in the community.

Two groups of patients are eligible to access this Service:

Category 1

Inpatients with an acquired neurological condition that are medically stable and can be safely discharged to the community with appropriate accommodation and equipment.

Category 2

Outpatients with an acquired or congenital neurological condition identified in a Rehabilitation Clinic as requiring a medical or surgical intervention to maximise or improve function.

Both groups of patients are eligible for a program through the Ambulatory Rehabilitation Service if the prescribed amount of therapy is not available in their local community.

The Ambulatory Rehabilitation Service offers programs that are:

• Intensive: therapy needs to occur more than three times per week, so initially the service will be operational from a hospital base.
• Time-limited: there are clear points of entry and exit, intensive rehabilitation is provided for the time period that it is required.
• Goal focused: therapy is based on the goals set by the patient, family and rehabilitation team at the beginning of the program and progressed once achieved.
• Family centred: family involvement in planning, therapy, goal setting and decision making is pivotal to therapy outcomes.
• Multi- and inter-disciplinary: more than one discipline may be involved in a patient's care and they will work in an inter-disciplinary manner, meaning that the therapists will work in a complimentary way to help the patient to achieve the goals they have identified.

Key components of the Ambulatory Rehabilitation Service:

• Early referral to and ongoing liaison with local community services
• Inclusion of community or hospital school
• Educating, up-skilling and mentoring clinicians working in country areas
• Multi-disciplinary and inter-agency family/patient goal meetings at the beginning and end of the therapy program and during the program as required
• As appropriate, key representatives from agencies involved in the patient's care will be invited to attend the relevant meetings
• Transition to home, school and the wider community
• A neuropsychological review to provide support for discharge planning (where appropriate)
• Support from social work and psychology (as appropriate)
• Discharge to local community services when intensive therapy is no longer indicated
• Ongoing surveillance through the Rehabilitation clinics.

Little Heroes Foundation Centre for Robotics and Innovation

Hospital, community and country SA/NT outpatient/outreach clinics

Movement Disorder Service which includes:

• Botulinum toxin
  
• Hip surveillance
• Intrathecal Baclofen (ITB)

Child and Adolescent Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service (CABIRS)