Regional Centre for Intensive Child Rehabilitation (RIB)

The centre’s remit is to offer various rehabilitation programmes to children and young people with different types of brain injury/disability, and to conduct research, professional development and knowledge dissemination. The programmes usually consist of intensive periods with group sessions in Kristiansand, followed by training at home in the child’s familiar environment. Between group sessions, we are available to provide advice and guidance to you as parents and to local support services. Our intensive programmes supplement the regular follow-up children receive from their municipality and local specialist health services.

We believe that training with children should be goal-oriented, playful and enjoyable. Activities are adapted to each child’s functional level and training goals. Training and stimulation goals are developed jointly by parents and professionals. An overarching goal is for children to develop new skills, enjoyment of activities, positive self-esteem, resilience and self-confidence. This is achieved by giving children the opportunity to take part in challenging, exciting and varied activities with peers with disabilities. We try to find activities that each child enjoys so much that doing the activity becomes a goal in itself. We believe this helps create high motivation and enthusiasm for activity in the children.

As parents of a child with a disability, you have greater and different caregiving, parenting, treatment and “administrative” responsibilities than parents generally. We have found that many parents discover resources and coping strategies that make the overall burden manageable, but we also see that many of you struggle and experience high levels of stress and strain. We are committed to supporting you in coping. We assess stress and strain, and offer reflective and supportive conversations.

Mountain safety rule no. 5 says: “Listen to experienced mountain people.” The rule applies in most situations where we, as human beings, find ourselves in somewhat new and demanding circumstances. There is good research evidence to support the view that you, as parents of children with disabilities, can benefit greatly from sharing experiences with other parents. Many feel that they share a unique bond with parents in a somewhat similar situation. Parents often feel that their roles are more equal when speaking with one another than they do when meeting with us healthcare professionals. Mutual encouragement and support between parents come easily, and the threshold for asking for advice is low. The advice is often practical, given in everyday, easy-to-understand language, and based on personal experience. There is a great deal of insight into one another’s emotional and practical circumstances, and parents readily feel understood. Emotional reactions they have or have had are also seen as common and normal. In line with this approach, we facilitate the sharing of experiences among you parents during your stay at RIB.

Please note that we are unable to offer services to siblings, and that they may only participate in activities with the children in the group on rare occasions and by prior arrangement. If a respite carer/other family members are to attend selected parts of the programme by prior arrangement, their accommodation must be organised and paid for separately.

We take a family-centred approach and emphasise that you, the parents, are the people who matter most to your children’s wellbeing and development. We focus on supporting you in coping with everyday challenges and your role as parents. Our family-centred approach involves helping you understand your child’s strengths and challenges, and how you and local professionals can best support your child’s development. We believe that every child has great untapped developmental potential.

We strongly believe in the value of peer-to-peer experience sharing. This includes sharing experiences among children and young people, between you as parents, and between you and your children. We therefore place great emphasis on creating good settings and meeting places for this exchange of knowledge.

Our approach to stimulation, training and treatment is multidisciplinary. This means that we draw on knowledge from several fields, including child psychology, movement science, physiotherapy, education, medicine and disability studies. Our treatment team consists of experienced professionals from different disciplines: physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, special education teachers and paediatricians. Our programmes are based on recognised, evidence-based methods. We are in contact with national and international professional communities and strive to apply the latest and best knowledge in the services we provide to each child and family. In particular, we draw inspiration and knowledge from the internationally renowned CanChild community (read about them at www.CanChild.can). We continuously develop our programmes in light of new knowledge, research findings and user experiences. Please note that changes to the treatment programmes may therefore occur.

All teaching and guidance is provided in Norwegian.

The child must be referred to RIB through the specialist health service. The referral must specify which programme the child is being referred to. We would like the referral to include an up-to-date description of the child and copies of previous assessment reports. We would also like you as parents to send us any information that may help us adapt and design a suitable programme for your child.

We accept referrals to all our rehabilitation programmes on an ongoing basis. Referrals are assessed in accordance with the applicable deadlines at the time, and we send a response to both the guardians and the referring professional.

We are located in our own adapted facilities at the hospital in Kristiansand. We have training, video-conferencing and meeting rooms, and also have access to an adapted patient hotel where families can stay during their visits.

RIB provides intensive rehabilitation programmes as part of the specialist health service, and there is no participation fee. Reimbursement for the cheapest mode of travel may be claimed through Pasientreiser (information at www.pasientreiser.no or by calling 91505515). Parents may apply for compensation for lost earnings in the form of training benefits, pursuant to sections 9-10 and 9-13 of the National Insurance Act.