Spinal Cord Injury Desk Reference: Guidelines for Life Care Planning and Case Management

This text arose out of a perceived need to have a single reference that would both contain information and serve as a reminder of areas central to the life care planning process for persons with SCI. It offers practitioners a single, easy-to-use resource that summarizes - in a clear, understandable way with easily accessible references - a body of studies and research on SCI that have important implications for life care planning and case management.

This text is an introduction to the basic aspects related to understanding SCI, including epidemiology, functional classification, and complications related to aging a with disability. In addition, it covers functional outcomes, potential associated costs, long-term management and care considerations, model LCP guidelines, and legislative, organizational, and agency resources.

This need for a continuum of care presents great challenges to health care professionals as well as to individuals with SCI and their families. Life care planning, which entered into the rehabilitation scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has proven to be one way of meeting this challenge by providing an organized framework of services, recommendations, and requirements for long-term care management. By using a consistent methodology in assessing the individual needs of the person with SCI, the life care plan (LCP) helps the health care professionals as well as the person with SCI acquire a comprehensive understanding of the immediate and long-term care requirements necessary to maximize productivity and independence.

Although the text was written primarily for life care planning and case management practitioners, it can also be useful to other professionals who may be involved with the long-term care and management needs of people with SCI. Included in this group are primary care and speciality care physicians, nurses, rehabilitation counselors, therapists, insurers/HMOs, attorneys, governmental agencies, disability organizations, and educators, as well as people with SCI and their families.

Terry L. Blackwell, EdDis Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Counseling at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana.

James Schwarz Krause, PhD, Dr. Krause is a Behavioral Scientist at the Shepherd Center, Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Terry Winkler is a Board Certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Spinal Cord Injury Medicine Physician in private practice in Springfield, Missouri. He holds academic appointments as Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and Clinical Professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Steven A. Stiens, MD, MS, Associate Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA