Normalization

The average age of an individual with a spinal cord injury (SCI) is 28 years old. 78% of the individuals with SCI are male. Ten years after injury between 25 and 32% of those injured are employed. 88% of those with an SCI return to home or non institutional care post injury.


I think the SCI rehab and therapy institutions are the key to the well-being to the individuals. Having physical therapy specialist along with mentors and guidance counselors all under one roof would make it a lot easier to move towards normalization. The injured individuals could have one file that is worked on by specialists within the same organizational hierarchy. At the school that I work at, I know one of the issues with special education is investigating the history of special needs provisions that each student has been through. It's hard to create the program and structure for the individual if you aren't quite sure what level of recovery they're already at. Once past the major rehabilitory stages, specialists and programmers can exchange thoughts on the characteristics of the individual and what type of reintegration would suit them best. This programmer would be from a development department that has various contacts with equal opportunity employers that welcome workers with disabilities. Within this hierarchal level, there could be another set of programmers to specifically create inclusive programs and activities for participants to engage in on-site. Animated leisure activities involving sports and teamwork would encourage the pro-social behaviors that would act like resume builders for reentering society independently. I would also suggest some type of continuing disability education and support to keep those SCI therapy participants connected. This would reduce the 10 year statistic of individuals returning home, or entirely new institutions. Even if they were still unemployed, they would still have the support structure and familiarity of programs there to fall back on.

Substance Abuse Treatment

The highlight from interviewing my participant was realizing the stereotypes of these kind of patients. I assumed that since Kellar was already in a substance abuse treatment program that he had serious issues with abuse. I saw that he was a very cooperative individual willing to make changes. I included in his service plan lots of interaction with others. Being included in community centers and clubs helps psychologically to keep people more positive and it also helps distract them from the negative behaviors that used to get them in trouble. Education is also another important step. Once Kellar realized he had a problem, this was the first part in changing his automatic thoughts and destructive habits. Eliminating anti-social and criminal behavior are keys to reducing substance use and relapse.