Dr. Sarah O'Doherty:

There are huge differences between the needs of children and adults with acquired brain injury. To refer back to that developmental piece and that changing nature of acquired brain injury, I see children as a neuropsychologist to ascertain their needs and to help make plans and pathways for them when they leave our service. They inevitably will return to that service at some point because their needs will change with development. As their brains mature and expectations of them change socially, emotionally and educationally, they will return to our service to be reassessed and re-evaluated. This does not happen in the adult services. There is a need for such an ongoing service for children, as well as a flexible and adaptive service into which children can bounce back at any time to avail of those services. We are not really set up for that at present. The place where I work operates as an inpatient service only and we are trying to cover an outpatient service. Again, on a wish list, an outpatient service for paediatrics that is staffed by paediatrically trained experts would be invaluable.