Specialized Transition Program/Neurorehabilitation Day Hospital

About Our Program:

As part of the continuum of pediatric rehabilitation therapy services provided by the Kennedy Krieger Institute, the Specialized Transition Program (STP) — a comprehensive rehabilitation day hospital model — strives to transition children and adolescents who are undergoing intensive neurorehabilitation back into their home, community and school life. The STP helps patients with brain injuries, spinal cord dysfunction, cerebral palsy, hemiplegia, chronic pain or functional disability and those who are recovering from orthopedic surgery, as well as other types of children and adolescents who require short-term intensive therapy without the need for hospitalization.

The STP fills a unique niche: the treatment of patients who no longer require round-the-clock medical observation and therapy, but who still require intensive therapy before full return to the community is recommended. Through the STP, these children and adolescents can receive the following:

• Physical and Occupational Therapies
• Speech Language Therapy
• Neuropsychology
• Counseling
• Nursing
• Classroom instruction and other services, in an educational setting -- a natural environment for children and adolescents

Upon discharge, patients transition back into the neighborhood school system and other community-based programs. STP serves preschool through high school aged individuals with a variety of rehabilitation needs, including those with:

• A traumatic brain injury or acquired central nervous system injury
• Spinal cord dysfunction who require medical management or rehabilitation of life skills required for independent functioning
• Orthopedic procedures, focusing on those with developmental disabilities
• Developmental disabilities, who can benefit from a period of intensive mutlidisciplinary therapy to achieve functional goals

Primary Program Goals:

• To deliver services that are cost-efficient, comprehensive and in a setting more natural than a hospital
• To identify and achieve individual treatment goals in an intense and efficient model of service delivery
• To transition patients successfully back into their community and school with improved levels of functioning
• To provide patient, family and community education
• To establish follow-up plans
• To maintain family and provider satisfaction

Related Materials and Information:

• Center for Brain Injury Recovery Brochure (PDF)
• Specialized Transition Program (PDF)

Additional Resources:

• The Resource Finder: A Project of Kennedy Krieger Institute
• Brain Injury Association
• Brain Injury Association of Maryland
• Spina Bifida Association of America
• Birth Defects Research for Children
• Children's Hemiplegia and Stroke Association
• American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine