ABSTRACT
The chapter describes three biopsychosocial formulation models (SPECS, SNAP and NIF-TY) developed specifically to guide neurorehabilitation interventions for children and young people (CYP) with an acquired brain injury. SPECS is an acronym for the core factors required to provide high-quality psychosocial care: social, physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual. SNAP is an acronym for systematic neuropsychological assessment profile and the NIF-TY for neuropsychological integrated formulation. They are underpinned by theory and can help expound the ‘personal’ domain of the International Classification of Functioning – Children and Young People’s framework (ICF-CY).
These models aim to integrate a large amount of complex information into user-friendly frameworks. They are cumulative and feed into one another. Developed over the course of clinical practice, they can be used across settings from paediatric inpatient, residential to community. Readers are presented with a number of worked clinical examples showing their practical application. Additional advantages are that they can be used across child and adult services plus aid transition across services. The models are integrative and allow the clinician and the team to piece together a holistic picture of the individual’s and the family’s needs with how to intervene therapeutically. This includes the results from both clinical and neuropsychological assessments.
This work was presented at the First International Paediatric Brain Injury Symposium in Liverpool in 2015 and internationally at the Eleventh World Congress on Brain Injury in the Hague in 2016.
