@article{ref1,
title="Relationships and the transition from spinal units to community for people with a first spinal cord injury: a New Zealand qualitative study",
journal="Disability and health journal",
year="2019",
author="Bourke, John A. and Nunnerley, Joanne L. and Sullivan, Martin and Derrett, Sarah",
volume="12",
number="2",
pages="257-262",
abstract="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. <br><br>OBJECTIVE: This study considers how SCI can impact relationships during the transition from spinal rehabilitation units to home. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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.<br><br>Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1936-6574",
doi="10.1016/j.dhjo.2018.09.001",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2018.09.001"
}