The influence of social support on the rehabilitation of women with spinal cord injury: experiences recounted by occupational therapists

Abstract

Objective: Women with a spinal cord injury (SCI) often require support from others to perform their everyday activities. The aim was to describe OTs' experiences of how social support from the network influences or could influence the rehabilitation of women with SCIs. Methods: Four occupational therapists, specialized in rehabilitation of persons with SCIs, narrated 11 separate stories relating to women with an SCI. Five themes were identified: “Assisting the women to identify new ways to perform activities”, “Giving support to the women by re-establishing relationships on their behalf”, “Enabling the women to find solutions to problems that have an impact on everyday activities”, “Enabling the women to learn what it is like to live with an SCI from first-hand accounts”, and “Assisting the women to set goals in anticipation of life outside the clinic”. Results and conclusions: The results indicate that professionals within rehabilitation need to be aware of and actively create and strengthen natural social networks during the complex and demanding rehabilitation process. Furthermore, they ought to use their capacity as professionals to ensure that support is provided and to reduce negative interactions within the injured person's network, given that social support, social integration, and negative interactions have the potential to influence health and well-being.

Key words::

• occupational therapy
• rehabilitation
• spinal cord injury
• social support
• women

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the occupational therapists for their willingness to participate in these interviews and for giving them such rich stories about the women they meet in their work. Financial support was provided by FoU enheten, Norrbottens läns landsting.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.