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An integrated approach to the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy: the multidisciplinary competences and the Family-Centred Therapy

This topic, already dealt with in past editions of the courses focused on the assessment and rehabilitation of adaptive functioning in children with cerebral palsy, is in the forefront again following the new proposed definition and classification of childhood cerebral palsy in the international literature. The concept itself which used to be confined to a “disorder of movement and posture due to early lesions of the brain” has now become wider and it was recognized that other disorders can accompany it, i.e. disturbances of sensation, cognition, communication, behavior, epilepsy and skeletal-muscle problems. Thus the classification, so far based on symptoms and topographic distribution, has now to be centered on functional aspects, neuroimaging findings, identifiable etiological factors and the presumed time frame during which the injury occurred. These new trends will be addressed and discussed during the first day of the Course.

On the second day many experts are going to discuss the clinical aspects of an integrated approach to rehabilitation, in particular management of CP patients requiring a multidisciplinary setting where different competences are integrated into the therapeutic project. Unfortunately, rehabilitation programs are too often delivered as the sum of single interventions, given to the child at random, and specialists do not have any opportunity to effectively integrate the different rehabilitation interventions into one single project.

The third day is going to be devoted to the cooperation between professionals and families: the experience of the Family-Centered Therapy is going to be illustrated by a specialist of the Can Child Centre for Childhood Disability Research from Canada. Some Italian experiences acquired in this field are going to be presented and some representatives of parents associations are going to explain their perspective.

As in previous editions, the frontal lessons with theoretical contributions and implications for the clinical practice will take place during the morning sessions, while the afternoon sessions will be devoted to teamwork, to presentations and to the discussion of clinical cases. These break-out sessions are conceived for the contributions and critical interventions of the participants, who will therefore be admitted only in a limited number (around 200).