From Protocol to Participation: Physical Therapy for Children with Disorders of Consciousness

In the United States, anoxic and traumatic brain injuries impact more than half a million children each year. Of these children, a subset will experience such severe brain injuries that arousal and awareness are significantly affected, resulting in disorders of consciousness (DoC). This session will define the different levels of consciousness and review the Coma Recovery Scale, the primary diagnostic tool necessary for accurate assessment and treatment. Presenter will discuss implementation and interpretation of diagnostic measures to guide treatment and prognosis, including the importance of conducting Individualized Quantitative Behavioral Assessments. Lastly, drawing from the research on individuals with DoC, as well as children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities, presenter will discuss methods for PTs and PTAs to focus on the participation level of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

This session will draw from the 2018 publication, Practice guideline recommendations: Disorders Of Consciousness, as well as the presenter’s experience managing the complexities of caring for this population at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, both within the inpatient rehabilitation setting as well as long-term through a multidisciplinary follow-up clinic. The session will include direct instruction, case studies and patient care anecdotes, and multimodal media. Presenter will elicit audience interaction via discussion-based components and question and answer opportunities, seeking to incorporate the collaboration between the presenter’s and the audience’s own experiential knowledge.