Abstract
This study investigated the interactional resilience processes (at the person-in-environment interface) of individuals with traumatic spinal cord injuries who successfully returned to work. In recent years, resilience theory has become an increasingly useful framework in social work, with much of the ground-breaking research focusing on the interactional resilience processes that take place between people and people and between people and their social systems. The increasing focus on personal, relational and environmental resilience-enabling resources has broadened access to resilience resources for individuals to obtain the better-than-expected outcomes in the face or wake of adversity.
However, despite this ground-breaking research, very little is known about the interactional resilience processes of individuals with traumatic spinal cord injuries. Research on the interactional resilience processes of the late onset of physical disability and attitudes towards individuals with traumatic spinal cord injuries is essential to have a better understanding of these resilience processes.
This study investigated the lived experiences of individuals with traumatic spinal cord injuries who have successfully returned to work. The study adopted a qualitative approach with an interpretivist constructionist epistemology and the study design was informed by methods of grounded theory. The data collection process made use of one-on-one semi-structured interviews with each one of the five participants. The first interview focused on the first objective and the second interview focused on the second and third objectives. The data analysis process adopted the thematic and grounded theory methods of analysis.
The findings revealed varying and similar narratives from the study participants on their lived experiences of traumatic spinal cord injuries and successful return to work. The participants’ narratives revealed that relational resilience-enabling resources emerged as a strong theme across all five participants, personal and structural resilience-enabling resources had the second most predominant themes, and the spiritual resilience-enabling resources had the least themes. These narratives all highlighted the importance of resilience-enabling resources following a traumatic spinal cord injury.
The current study is not without recommendations for practice and future research. This study revealed the effectiveness of resilience-enabling resources and the interactional resilience processes
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for the population with TSCIs. Thus, the following recommendations are hereby presented considering these findings:
The study findings highlighted four resilience clusters and five interactional resilience enabling resources which were instrumental in promoting the participants’ resilience enabling processes. The following section will provide an overview of how social workers in physical rehabilitation facilities can do to promote client to obtain the better-than-expected outcomes.
Social workers in physical rehabilitation facilities can maximize the use of psychoeducation to educate individual with TSCI on the use of personal attributes to assist them to cope better with TSCI. This can take place through psychoeducational groups which can include Q&A segment, which will allow engagements between the social worker and the group participants to facilitate learning which will then enhance treatment outcomes.
In addition to psychoeducational group intervention, social workers in rehabilitation facilities can adopt the culture of mobilizing the use of relational resilience enabling resources through support group interventions during the rehabilitation process. These support groups can consist of various medical experts, family members and individuals with TSCI. This increase knowledge base and ensure discharge readiness for both the individual with TSCI and their respective family members.
Another resilience cluster highlighted in the study was the use of spirituality to enhance resilience enabling resources for individuals with TSCI; as such social workers in rehabilitation facilities can assume an active role in the development and implementation of institutional policies that embrace different spiritual belief systems. This will encourage individuals with different belief systems to culminate their spiritual enabling resources and use them during their rehabilitation journey.
And lastly, social workers in rehabilitation facilities can lobby with different governmental and private departments to help raise awareness about the late onset of physical disability and the ripple impact on families and communities. This will assist bridge the existing gap between able bodied individuals and differently bodied individuals.
The findings for the five interactional resilience processes indicated that the second and third interactional resilience processes relies on the interactions between the person with TSCI and another. These interactions demonstrates that resilience is a partly a product of meaningful interaction between people and people. Social workers in rehabilitation facilities can encourage persons with TSCI to normalize asking for help to change the narrative that asking for help is a form of weakness.