Rehabilitation of the severely brain-injured patient: a community-based, low-cost model program.

Survival from severe traumatic head injury requires long-term, comprehensive rehabilitation services. While acute, hospital-based rehabilitation services are becoming plentiful, low-cost community educational and socialization services are still rare. Cognitive impairments and behavioral disinhibitions frequently are so severe that traditional community agencies cannot effectively serve them. A unique low-cost program model has been developed and successfully implemented to prepare the most severely head injured for more traditional programs. Individualized programming is provided in a highly structured social setting by a professional teacher and many trained volunteers.