Programs
Delaware
TBI Lead Agency
Dept. of Public Health, DHHS
Jesse S. Cooper Building
417 Federal Street
Dover, DE 19901
Lora Lewis
Children with Special Healthcare Needs Director
302-744-5455
302-741-2995 (Fax)
Service Delivery
In Delaware, the Brain Injury Project is a collaborative coordination between the Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities (DSAAPD) and the Department of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health Section. Information and referral requests generally go through the Delaware Help Line and the 800 Brain Injury Association of Delaware toll-free telephone number. Children with TBI from birth to three years of age receive information, referral, assessment, family support, care coordination, and direct rehabilitation assistance from Child Development Watch and the Division of Developmental Disabilities, Early Intervention Program. Children from ages three to 21 receive services through the Delaware's IDEA program and the child's local school district. If eligible at the age of 14, they can receive services through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR). Child Development Watch is staffed by a variety of State and private agencies including the Division of Visually Impaired, the State School for the Deaf, Department of Education, AI DuPont Hospital and Christiana Care Health System, the Department of Public Health staff, and Neurology Associates. Children also receive transition to school services at age three. They also may receive assistance from the Division of Development Disabilities or Division of Child Mental Health and Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health if they meet eligibility requirements. At age 18, individuals can enter the adult service system and may receive information, referral, assessment, care coordination, and rehabilitation services from the Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities (DSAAPD) the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDDS) or the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH). Individuals with brain injury, eligible for services, can receive them through existing State funded, statewide community support programs such as Medicaid Managed Care, Medicaid Waivers, community transition programs, caregiver resource, respite, money management, the Passport to Independence Program,and other special State programs. Delaware also has a 20-bed, residential, assisted living program designated for individuals 18 years of age and older with acquired brain injury.
Delaware's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVR) provides services to adults with TBI. Adults who are 21 and older usually contact one of the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Services offices to seek services. VR also works with individuals at age 16, sometimes even 14, when they are identified in a school transition program. Delaware has one full time designated Brain Injury counselor. The vocational rehabilitation counselor may work with private or public case managers to assess the individual's needs and to arrange for pre-vocational or other community- based services provided through the TBI Interactive Community-Based Model (ICBM) program. Services provided or purchased are based on an individual care treatment plan directed by the agency. Services may range from assessment, home-based interventions, community-based interventions, and transition to vocational rehabilitation services. In addition, The DVR's School-to-Careers Transition Project is collaboration between DVR, the Department of Education and the 19 local school districts in Delaware. Ten DVR counselors meet with seniors in 29 high schools, charter schools, and/or in their homes on a regular and established schedule. This program provides vocational assessment, counseling, and guidance and placement services so that students with disabilities will stay in school, pursue skills training or postsecondary education, become employed in a career of their choice, and transition successfully from school to adult life.
Find out more information on this State's services in its current profile by clicking here. [PDF 50KB]. You can also order a hardcopy of our latest "Guide to State Government Brain Injury Policies, Funding and Services" for profiles of all States and much more.
HRSA-Funded Projects
The Community Legal Aid Society was awarded a Protection and Advocacy Grant. Delaware's Planning Grant, received in 1997, focused on establishing a centralized brain injury office, mandating the advisory council in legislation, and implementing the TBI State Action Plan.
Find more information on this State's project in its current grant profile.
Promising Practices
Received Olmstead Systems Change and Assistive Technology grants. The overall planning for TBI services has been a collaboration between the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Department of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health Section. Some key outcomes of this collaboration have been as follows:
- Passed legislation regarding lowering the blood alcohol limits to .08 .
- Tracking the number of school children with TBI through a special education unit count for TBI.
- Established a Statewide Brain Injury Subcommittee to the State Council on Persons with Disabilities.
- Identified gaps in surveillance data across various State data systems and tracking TBI through the Delaware Trauma Registry.
- Identified all individuals with acquired brain injury in State facilities.
- Identified most gaps in surveillance data across various State data systems.
- Identified all individuals with acquired brain injury in State facilities.
- Developed a Coma Guide for Families distributed by hospitals.
- Brain injury consumers and their families now represented on key State committees and task forces.
- Developed a "Falls in the Elderly TBI Education Program."
- Developed a statewide TBI and Spinal Cord Injury Prevention Plan.
Click here for a summary of the State's Brain Injury Training Portfolio
