Birth Injury Lawyer Expounds on Benefits of Adult Day Care for Those with Cerebral Palsy

Parents of a newborn who develops cerebral palsy as the result of a birth injury are often unaware of the challenges and difficulties – economic and noneconomic in nature – that their child will face over the course of his or her life. Since there is no cure for cerebral palsy, the struggles the child faces in his or her infancy will accompany him or her for the rest of his or her life. As a recent story in the Las Vegas Review Journal shows, providing for the child’s needs throughout the remainder of his or her life requires the parents and legal counsel to consider services necessary for the child in adulthood as well as in childhood.

Adult Day Care Provides Social Interaction for Adult with Cerebral Palsy

The Review Journal article describes the benefits of certain adult day care programs for an adult with cerebral palsy. Keaton Sabraw’s cerebral palsy impacts his ability to speak, but as a child he enjoyed attending the local high school. When he turned 21, however, he was unable to continue attending school and instead needed to be watched by his grandparents while his parents were at work. According to his mother, her son went from being social to doing little more each day than watching television. After finding an appropriate adult day care facility, however, Keaton Sabraw’s medical needs are not only met but he has regular social interaction with other residents and staff – much as he enjoyed while attending high school.

The Importance of Properly Quantifying Present and Future Needs

An experienced Cerebral Palsy Lawyer knows an integral part of any cerebral palsy birth injury lawsuit is quantifying the amount of damages to seek from the at-fault party. This amount should account for the expenses the family has already incurred as well as those the family anticipates incurring in the future. While the precise necessities a child with cerebral palsy will have as an adult cannot be determined with 100 percent accuracy while the child is still young, the limitations the child experiences in his or her infancy can be used to help predict what needs the child may have as an adult. Even where the parents of a child with cerebral palsy are committed to caring for their child throughout his or her life, they may wish to explore adult day care because:

• An appropriate program can provide a much-needed respite to the child’s parents and/or caregivers. Full-time caregivers – even parents of the child – will periodically need time away from their responsibilities in order to remain effective caregivers.
• An adult day care program may be able to provide therapeutic-type services for an adult with cerebral palsy. (It is important, however, to ensure that any such “services” are provided by appropriately qualified individuals).
• As was the case with Keaton Sabraw, an adult day care facility can provide an adult with cerebral palsy with opportunities for socialization and activity with individuals that may be of the same age as the adult child and/or who have similar limitations.

When the parents of a child with cerebral palsy are calculating the amount of damages they will need to request, it may be helpful to investigate several adult day care facilities in the area in order to obtain an idea of the cost of these programs. In many cases, so long as an anticipated future expense is reasonably likely to be incurred and is causally related to the child’s cerebral palsy, it can be considered as part of the damages awarded to the child’s family as the conclusion of a cerebral palsy lawsuit.

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