Supporting a person living with a spinal cord injury
This Health Maintenance Tool and supporting SCI Health Toolkit app have been developed to help people living with a spinal cord injury to understand their bodies, and prevent or manage health issues as they arise.
The resources and tools in this Health Maintenance Tool and the SCI Health Toolkit app have been developed specifically to support you to understand, check, prevent and manage these needs, throughout your life.
The information and tools provided can also help guide and support healthcare professionals, carers, and the families and friends of people living with a spinal cord injury.
When caring for someone living with a spinal cord injury, you may need different resources at different times. For the person living with a spinal cord injury, they will have different levels of readiness, which will influence how they access and use the information provided in this Health Maintenance Tool.
Some of the key resources that can help you support a person living with a spinal cord injury are:
Healthcare professionals have a central role to play in getting the balance right between what carers need to provide, and where a person with a spinal cord injury can self-manage their own issues to maintain independence and achieve a fulfilling life.
It is important to encourage people with a spinal cord injury to take control of their life and health. Therefore, the emphasis needs to be on the relationship between mind and body, and how people living with a spinal cord injury can be in control of their life.
Health Maintenance Tool resources that can help you and the person in your care are:
Family and friends
It can be very emotionally challenging for family and friends who are supporting a person with a spinal cord injury adjust to their changed lifestyle.
Family members and friends can often find themselves with overwhelming feelings of guilt, helplessness, confusion and isolation. You may feel swamped with information from health professionals, and it may be challenging when trying to recognise personal boundaries for the person living with the spinal cord injury.
When caring for someone with a spinal cord injury, it’s important to guide them so they are always in control of the choices made about their health care and their life.
Some key resources that can help include:
Professional carers need to have a strong understanding of the person living with a spinal cord injury’s body and their personal boundaries. An initial focus would be on their mental wellbeing, bladder, bowel and skin issues, pain levels, and their risk of.
A person living with a spinal cord injury needs support from their carer in identifying potential issues and warning signs, and addressing these before they become a major health care problem.
The resources and tools in this Health Maintenance Tool can help professional carers work with the person they are supporting to build a good working relationship that results in an optimum level of health care. Some of the resources that may help you in your role include: