Located
at Ryde, approximately fifteen kilometres from the CBD, the Royal Rehabilitation
Centre Sydney (RRCS) provides a range of programs for more than 2000 clients
each year, including inpatient, outpatient, community and home-based
rehabilitation and disability services. Specialist inpatient services include
spinal cord, brain injury, adult and aged care rehabilitation. The Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service (BIRS) at the RRCS comprises a 16 bed inpatient facility, and a Brain Injury Community Rehabilitation Team.
The RRCS Brain Injury Unit is one of the 3 specialised adult inpatient units in NSW providing rehabilitation for clients who have sustained a traumatic brain injury. It generally services clients from the Northern, Eastern and Central Sydney, as well as Northern and North-West NSW. The Unit was opened in 1991, part of a state-wide network, funded by the Motor Accident Authority, to provide comprehensive rehabilitation services to TBI patients.
Staff at the Inpatient Unit include the Rehabilitation Specialist, Registrar, CNC, nurses, occupational therapy staff, physiotherapy staff, recreational therapist, speech pathologists, clinical psychologist, clinical neuropsychologist, dietician, and two social workers (one full time and one part-time). Psychiatry, orthoptic and dentistry consultancy services are available on site as required. RRCS employs a Compensible Case Co-Ordinator who prepares the inpatient client rehabilitation plans, and liases with solicitors and insurance companies for the compensible clients.
In the Brain Injury Community Rehabilitation Team (BICRT) similar staffing exists, although there are no ward nurses. There are 3 Case Manager positions and a part-time Social Worker. BICRT services the Northern, Eastern and Central Sydney areas. BICRT clients may be referred from the inpatient rehabilitation team, from other hospitals or community service providers, or are self referred. Clients continue to receive BICRT services while they have current rehabilitation goals.
The focus of the Inpatient Social Work service is on providing psychosocial assessments, support and counselling to the client and carers, intensive involvement in the client’s rehabilitation program, and discharge planning. Challenges for the social work role include suitable placement of young people who are unable to return home following rehabilitation, inadequate community services for non-compensible clients, and working with often highly traumatised families.
The focus of the Community Social Work service is support and counselling to clients and carers. The social workers in both the inpatient and community teams work extremely closely with the other members of the multidisciplinary team to achieve clients’ goals and optimal outcomes.
The BIRS Social Workers are members of the NSW Branch of the Australian Association of Social Workers special interest group, Social Workers in Brain Injury (SWIBI), which meets bimonthly. They regularly attend brain injury specific conferences and workshops in Sydney, nationally or overseas.
