Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation

Spinal cord injury produces a unique multiplicity of problems which must be clearly understood by the considerable numbers of health care and rehabilitation professionals involved in their lifetime management. This book assumes an educational approach to spinal cord injury management, in which the individual becomes an active participant in goal setting, problem solving, and in assuming self responsibility. Rehabilitation is discussed in terms of client empowerment, client-professional partnerships and examines the client in the context of his unique socio-cultural environment. This book attempts to present an educational and psychosocial model for the rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries. In line with this approach, the first chapters present a concept of empowerment in rehabilitation and of an educational view of the process of learning to live with a suddenly acquired disability. The medical aspects of spinal cord injury follow, with a study of aetiology, impairments, acute care, disability reduction and engagement in self care activities. The management of high lesions in a rehabilitation context is examined separately, since this is a highly specialised area and one which is largely ignored both in therapy literature and in professional practice. The final chapters focus upon psychological issues, and upon such issues as productivity, leisure, socialization which are important both in early phases of management and in the long term.