2022 Fall Edition
ACRM 2022 Mark Ylvisaker Memorial Pediatric Brain Injury Symposium
Supporting Students with Brain Injury in Schools: Community Collaboration
Melissa McCart, Ed.D
Abstract: Mark Ylvisaker was a prolific author and received many accolades and distinctions for his pioneering work in the area of brain injury. He was quoted as saying “in the absence of meaningful engagement in chosen life activities, all interventions will ultimately fail.” Mark’s insight concerning life can also be applied to the return to school process, that in order for the medical community and schools to be successful in working with students with brain injury they must be involved in “meaningful engagement” or their “interventions will ultimately fail”. This symposium will discuss the differences between medical and school interventions and what medical communities and schools can do to provide successful and meaningful interventions for students with brain injury as they return to school. These needs include collaborative strategies for communication between healthcare and school settings, and systems for identification of the TBI at school, and the provision of supports for students in the return to school process.
Brief Bio: Melissa McCart, Ed.D, is an Assistant Research Professor and the co-director of the Center on Brain Injury Research and Training (CBIRT) in the department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. Dr. McCart has a background as a special education teacher for students with emotional disturbance, behavioral consultant, and school administrator. For the last 10 years, she has coordinated the Oregon TBI Teams, an interdisciplinary group of educators who support Oregon educators who work with students with traumatic brain injury. She currently oversees CBIRT’s outreach efforts to address childhood brain injury. This outreach includes working on legislation and policy with state agencies, developing evidence-based tools and resources, and evaluating training and technical assistance for school districts, departments of health, and state agencies. She is a researcher in the field of special education with expertise in the areas of instructional design, emotional and behavioral disorders, traumatic brain injury, special education law and policy and the design, and delivery and evaluation of interventions. Her research is focused on evidence-based educator training, advancing best-practices for return to school following brain injury, and ensuring educational policy is guided/supported by the empirical evidence.
Pediatric Adolescent Task Force
Pediatric Cognitive Rehabilitation Working Group: Dr. Drew Nagele leads the project to develop material to add to the Cognitive Rehabilitation Manual that described the pediatric aspects of Cognitive Rehabilitation. This information will be added to the materials and presented at the 2022 conference. Children and their families navigate two models of care- healthcare and school settings. The content will describe how to implement cognitive rehabilitation interventions in both areas. The working group includes Tanya Brown, Angela Ciccia, Felicia Connor, Kimberly Davis, Christine Koterba, Jennifer Lundine, Melissa McCart and Racheal Smetana.
Family Project: Dr. Jennifer Lundine lead this project that examines the impact of brain injury on families. This year they successfully completed a manuscript that was published : Jennifer P. Lundine, Angela H. Ciccia, Christine Koterba & Ann Guernon (2022): Factors that Influence Follow-Up Care for Families of Children with Acquired Brain Injury: A Scoping Review, Brain Injury, DOI: 10.1080/02699052.2022.2051741.
Mark Ylvisaker Memorial Symposium – This lecture honors the work of Dr. Mark Ylvisaker, a pioneer in rehabilitation of children and adolescents with brain injury and champion of intervention grounded in everyday life. The speaker for the 2022 Conference in Chicago is Dr. Melissa McCart who will present a talk titled, Supporting Students with Brain Injury in Schools: Community Collaboration.
Transition to Adulthood Work Group: Led by Dr. Jaclyn Stephens and Dr. Jiabin Shen, this group received funding from BI-ISIG to conduct a literature review to better understand the transition to adulthood for adolescents who experienced Traumatic Brain Injury. The Group has completed the review and is currently working on the manuscript.
