Client-Centred Rehabilitation - Arthritis Community Research ...

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sort we’ll be here” SCI #2
Clients in the COPD focus group discussed
at length the issue of changing their lifestyle
for the sake of their chronic condition.
However they felt that there rehabilitation
did not provide them with the necessary
tools/skills to deal such a dramatic change in
their life. One member of the COPD group
expressed this sentiment:
They didn’t, they didn’t talk about
that, all they did was say I am going
to introduce you to this word called
change of lifestyle. COPD 3#
Clients in the SCI group talked at length
about the need to learn how to ask for help
and manipulate others in order to survive in
the community.
“And there are skills that you have to
just learn…yesterday I went to a
sports bar…it’s got two stairs to get
in. I just have to have the
assertiveness to see two big guys and
say ‘Can you throw me up these two
stairs’” SCI #2
Emotional challenges
In addition to the practical issues that clients
have with respect to living with their chronic
condition, participants described a range of
emotional challenges that they had to
contend with and for which they did not feel
prepared. Participants conveyed a sense of
loss of roles that permeated different aspects
of their lives. Regardless of where the
clients experienced loss, such loss affected
their perceptions of their self-identity.
“Sometimes I could cry and I know
that I’ve jumped in my vehicle and
I’ve driven and where you going?
No place. I just want to get out of
the house. Why? Because I wanted
to leave what I used to do so well
and so proudly in everything and I
needed a few minutes to cry and the
best place to do it is on the 401”
COPD #4
Acceptance of their condition and
limitations is a challenge that most
participants faced. This was particularly
evident for the younger members of the SCI
and ABI groups.
“What do you want to be when you
grow up? And I was 18 and that is
really a tough thing to hit an 18 year
old new injury, “What do you want
to be?” I want to be 19 and I want to
walk.” SCI #2
However, it was also true for the older
clients. A client with arthritis shares how
long it took her to accept her chronic
condition and the impact it had on her
lifestyle:
“It took me 10 years to try and cope
with everyday of having to get up at
6 o’clock and nowhere to go.”
ARTH #2
Emotional support
The need for emotional support to help meet
these emotional challenges was a common
theme throughout all the focus groups.
Clients discussed receiving support from a
number of sources, such as family, peers,
staff and community organizations.
All clients mentioned the importance of the
emotional and practical support they
received from their families during their
rehabilitation both in the hospital and the
community. In most cases, they spoke
positively of situations where their families