Tetraplegia is a serious condition resulting from a spinal cord injury (SCI) that leads to complete or incomplete paralysis of all four limbs. Persons with tetraplegia face a range of physical and psychological challenges. Even an incomplete loss of arm and hand function has an immense impact on an individual's ability to carry out everyday activities.

Sporting accidents are a frequent cause of traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI), and a common subset of these SCI are those resulting from skiing and snowboarding. The devastating injuries that are associated with such recreational sports often affect young men under thirty.

Intuitively, it can be said that hope plays a significant role in the process of rehabilitation. However, a central question is whether the feeling of hope can be supported by a rehabilitation team in an explicit way and integrated in the rehabilitation process to achieve better outcomes.

Health maintenance is considered a key outcome in the long-term care of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). An person's health behaviour plays a major role in maintaining his or her health. Such behaviour encompasses a range of strategies that can be undertaken by the person and supported by the rehabilitation team. A key strategy toward health maintenance is the prevention of adverse events and comorbidities

With the sudden and unexpected nature of traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), concerns and questions surrounding recovery are at the forefront of the minds of the person and all concerned with his or her well-being.

Rehabilitation following spinal cord injury (SCI) recognises the importance of returning to work and the essential role employment plays in participation within a community.

Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) face extraordinary challenges beyond adapting to the physical aspects of their injury. They may also be confronted with functional limitations, and most importantly restrictions in participation within his or her physical and psychosocial environment. Considering this, a key goal of rehabilitation of persons with SCI is the reintegration into the community.

Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) tend to be less physically fit than the general non-SCI population. Impaired physical functioning associated with SCI can lead to physical inactivity and reduced physical fitness. This can, in turn, lead to secondary complications and difficulties in activities of daily living. Exercise and sport can break this vicious cycle.

Regaining the ability to walk seems to be a major long-term goal of persons with spinal cord injury Considering this and findings that persons with an incomplete SCI are likely to regain some level of walking ability, exploring ways to facilitate “walking recovery” would be important in rehabilitation management.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of people with disabilities live in developing countries. In fact disability rates are disproportionally higher in lower than in higher-resource countries.

For persons living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) or other types of physical disabilities, accessibility is key to successful community reintegration and vitally important for overall life satisfaction.

For most teenagers, with or without disabilities, adolescence is a period of time full of rapid and dramatic changes that present many challenges. However, teenagers with disabilities face unique challenges that have implications for personal development, family and peer relationships, and healthcare.

For persons living with a spinal cord injury (SCI) or spinal cord disease (SCD), problems associated with bowel and/or bladder functioning are common and have serious consequences for both health maintenance and participation, and ultimately for quality of life.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an extreme and stressful life event that can leave individuals in a state of emotional instability. The person's overall psychological well-being can be influenced not only by the stress experienced during and after the trauma, but also by his or her personal resources and coping strategies.

The aspect of time can have an impact on the lived experience of persons with spinal cord injury/disorder (SCI/SCD) – on a person's independence in daily activities and participation in economic, social, and community life.

For many persons living with spinal cord injury (SCI), motivation is an important and at times challenging aspect of the rehabilitation process. In general, motivation is a complex, goal-oriented process that involves many factors. Although most everyone has some sort of understanding what motivation is, it is difficult to clearly define, measure and shape motivation.

For persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), there are issues beyond the physical disability, including financial and insurance issues, issues related to employment, and various other environmental factors, that often need to be addressed for rehabilitation and community reintegration to be successful. Social service support in rehabilitation is essential to help navigate through these issues.

For many persons with spinal cord injury (SCI), living with and managing pain are major challenges that can have a tremendous impact on quality of life and the ability to carry out daily activities.

After experiencing a spinal cord Injury (SCI) the person not only has to deal with regaining body functions and learn strategies to adapt to activity limitations, the person is often confronted with physical and social accessibility issues as well as loss of income or questions of cost coverage for medical/rehabilitative interventions. As a person with disability, being aware of his or her rights and how to navigate through the legal and social security systems could help optimise the person’s community reintegration after SCI.