Charting a parallel course : meeting the community service needs of persons with spinal injuries

Abstract

This study aimed to explore and develop a fresh understanding of the community service needs of persons with spinal injuries. Different concepts of need were explored, which required multiple methodologies including a review of government policies and legislation, analysis of demographic, injury related and service usage data obtained from a survey, and analysis of interviews with persons with spinal injuries and their carers. Normative need was interpreted by government and service providers in terms of functional impairment and economic disadvantage, which did not reflect the individual needs of persons with spinal injuries. Neither were services for persons with spinal injuries provided to individuals according to the criteria of their felt or expressed need for services, their perceptions of the intrinsic importance of services, nor on the basis of redressing comparative inequities in service distribution. Persons with spinal injuries' need for community services could only be understood on the basis of the contribution services made to the realisation of their plans of life, that is, to be ordinary. In order to parallel plans of ordinariness, services need to be offered in partnership with, or under the control of the person with spinal injuries, foster an essential relationship between the provider and the person with spinal injuries, and not inappropriately assess and judge the life plans of persons with spinal injuries based upon providers' perceptions of difference.

Date of Award	1999
Original language	English