15 | Psychological Issues And SCI

Stress, Coping and Subjective Well-Being

General Introduction

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.

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Assessing Ingrid's Functioning

Assessment

To develop a profile of Ingrid’s functioning state at the start of the Rehab-Cycle®, her rehabilitation team conducted a comprehensive assessment. This first assessment encompassed a battery of discipline-specific evaluations (health professional perspective) and involved interviewing Ingrid to capture her perspective about her functioning and health status (patient perspective).

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Goal-setting/Determination of Intervention Targets

As a guide for creating Ingrid's functioning profile, for setting goals and for determining intervention targets based on the first assessment of Ingrid's functioning, the rehabilitation team utilised the ICF Core Set for spinal cord injury (SCI) in the post-acute context.

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Assignment and Intervention

In Ingrid's Rehab-Cycle®, a psychologist was assigned to address her emotional and psychological needs, focusing primarily on Ingrid's cycle goal 4 ‘psychosocial well-being’.

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Evaluation

After completing the intervention phase of the Rehab-Cycle® Ingrid's functioning was re-evaluated to assess the extent to which the goals she and her rehabilitation team had set at the beginning of the Rehab-Cycle® were achieved.

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Discussion

The major life changes and the stress that accompany a spinal cord injury (SCI) can contribute to increasing the risk of developing emotional and other psychosocial problems.

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Literature

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15 | Psychological Issues And SCI