Bourke JA, Nunnerley JL, Sullivan M, Derrett S. Disabil. Health J. 2019; 12(2): 257-262.
Affiliation
Injury Prevention Research Unit, Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. Electronic address: Sarah.derrett@otago.ac.nz.
BACKGROUND: Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) can have substantial consequences for the injured person, and also their family/whānau (Māori word for extended family and social networks). Family members can adopt either formal or informal care roles when the person returns home, and people with high-level care requirements may also need non-family support workers.
OBJECTIVE: This study considers how SCI can impact relationships during the transition from spinal rehabilitation units to home.
METHOD: Nineteen SCI participants from the New Zealand longitudinal study were interviewed six months post-discharge from either of New Zealand's two spinal units. Data were analysed using the framework method.
RESULTS: Three themes captured participants' relationship experiences during the time of transition: Role Disruption, examines how participants' pre-SCI family/whānau relationships underwent change as previously understood parameters of engagement were disrupted. A Balancing Act, explores the challenge of renegotiating previously-understood parameters between participants and whānau. The Stranger in My/Our Room focuses on how the relationship between participants and support workers was (necessarily) new to the participant and their family/whānau who now had an 'outsider' episodically or continuously in their home. The specifics of 'their' relationship was also new to the support worker; and negotiating the parameters of this relationship could only occur on transition home.
CONCLUSION: SCI necessitates a renegotiation of relationships and, for some, also involves the negotiation of a new type of relationship with support workers. Understanding the ways a SCI may affect relationships can enable rehabilitation services to best support people with SCI and their family to prepare for their transition home.