Lessons Learned: Counseling and Peer Support for Individuals with Spinal Cord Injury 4362

Abstract

Objectives

To understand the background of counseling and peer support. To describe how a program of counseling and peer support was and can be established. To learn barriers and facilitators in implementation of a counseling and peer support program. To summarize lessons learned on implementing a counseling and peer support program.

Design

Longitudinal descriptive qualitative study of reports of the participants who were enrolled in the study over the course of 6 weeks.

Setting

Fitness and Wellness Facility for Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation and Recovery.

Participants

Nine participants with spinal cord injury (SCI) volunteered for the study. All participants alternated between individual and group counseling sessions.

Interventions

First a focus group was established of 9 people with SCI in the community who guided the dosage and direction of the topic list needed to lead the counseling sessions. The counselors were social workers who had SCIs and were active in the planning and implement and the planning of the study. Participants were followed for 6 weeks, alternating between individual and group gatherings. The topic list provided ranged from transportation, sex, relationships and more. There were guiding questions began the discussion, which were modified based on the participants’ responses. A qualitative analysis was performed on the notes assembled for all participants (n=9). Program feedback was provided by social workers.

Main Outcome Measures

Qualitative summaries over the 6 weeks for all participants and program evaluation review.

Results

Participants found the in-person meetings useful and wished the program would continue indefinitely. All participants found the group sessions most helpful and reported beneficial engagement with other participants. Several participants who had transportation or health challenges, who were offered a virtual option to continue their participation.

Conclusions

A counseling support program could be generated in most clinical settings with the appropriate expertise such as Social Work or Psychology and is most beneficial in a community setting. This allows individuals with SCI to describe barriers or challenges that could enable a rich discussion and a sharing of possible solutions. It is important that the content of these discussions remain private and only deidentified key issues were available for this analysis. The word “counseling” had a negative connotation so other less imposing terms should be considered. Challenges included the time needed to on-board the counselors into the HR system to be paid, and recruitment/retention, however the virtual option was desirable.

Disclosures

I am the PI on the Perry Grant that funded this study and a Board Member for Motion Project Foundation