Reintegration to School after Craniocerebral Injury: Results of a Survey

Background/Purpose: Reintegration to school after craniocerebral injury is a challenge for the affected children and youth, their parents, and the teachers. The wish exists to return into the former class, at least the former school after the stay in the rehabilitation clinic. It is in the responsibility of the rehabilitation clinic to prepare this transition. Actually there is a lack of investigations about the results of this transition and which factors facilitate or hinder it.

Methods: We sent questionnaires to 144 patients who were inpatients of the HELIOS Klinik Geesthacht between 2008 and 2015. Fifty-five questionnaires were sent back, and 50 could be evaluated.

Results: 78.26% could be go back to their former school, 60.78% to their former class. 73.91% report on long-time implications. 60% plan to finish school with the “Abitur”; these are little less than before the injury (69.23%). 41.3% get help from external support, this could not prevent changes during school career in each individual case. Half of the patients report on an unplanned change in the school career due of the craniocerebral injury, 17.39% changed school after the initial decision at the end of the rehabilitation. This was independent of the recommendation of the clinic.

Conclusion: Even though a major part of the patients report long-time implications after craniocerebral injury, most of them manage to go back to their former school. This affords manifold support und knowledge about cognitive and behavioral affections. For the future, there is still potential to improve the cooperation between the rehabilitation clinic and the following institutions.