Objective: To survey the role, function and staffing of community rehabilitation teams in London and the South East NHS Region of England who work with neurologically disabled people, with emphasis on services provided for traumatic brain injury.
Design: Telephone survey using a structured interview with team leaders.
Setting: London and South East NHS Regions of England (population 15.6 million).
Subjects: Community rehabilitation teams.
Main outcome measures: A structured interview about service provision.
Results: Thirty-five teams were found in 25 Health Authorities serving 14 million people. In a further five Health Authorities, another five teams did not participate. There were fewer than 1.5 community team professionals for 4000–5000 neurologically disabled. Teams had seen less than 3% of disabled traumatic brain injuries. Most focused on physical disability. Only two teams specialized in consequences of cognitive impairment or personality change. Stroke and multiple sclerosis were the most common referrals. Sixty per cent of teams had no clinical psychologist. The composition of teams is described, as is caseload, clinical role, outcome measures used, professional links, work practice and staffing issues.
Conclusions: Community physical disability teams seem insufficiently resourced to provide a comprehensive service for the neurologically disabled. There are not enough teams generally, and too few specialize in psychosocial problems. All teams should include a clinical psychologist, should have specialist resources for cases from ethnic minorities and formal policies for staff security. There needs to be clarity over the range of services provided and to whom, and this linked to prevalence of disability and team resourcing.
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