Lives in transition : the experience of living with spinal cord injury and the meaning of adjustment

• Main Author: Scott, Sarah Barabara
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/6004

The experience of living with spinal cord injury (SCI) is not well understood and no empirical definition of adjustment was found in the literature. Phenomenological design was used to explore these gaps. In-depth interviews were conducted with eight men and two women who have SCIs and reside in the community. The experience was found to involve a transition process wherein people moved from destabilized to restabilized identity as they progressed through phases of Disorientation in acute care, Rehabilitation, Coasting, Entering the Community, and a Critical Turning Point. As this occurred, disability became less central until finally becoming only one of many aspects of life. Support, affiliation with other people with disabilities, and a strategy of pursuing options were important facilitators of progress. Adjustment was associated with movement, change and learning. Accepting SCI was found to mean being fully cognizant of one's situation. This appeared to be an influential factor in adjustment, which findings suggest may be the course of a person's response to change. SCI as transition emphasizes the individual's perspective and introduces an alternative to the historical medical approach to SCI which focuses on the condition arising from injury. The bulk of psychological research on SCI excludes the perspectives of persons with SCI and the contexts of their lives, and it focuses on the short-term. It has not, therefore, accessed the experience of living with SCI. Transition theory seeks to understand the individual's perception of the impact of SCI on life experience over the long term. It can bring forth knowledge of SCI as an experience of living which can inform practice and further research.