Research update: International Spinal Cord Injury Project (InSCI)

The International Spinal Cord Injury (InSCI) project is part of a wider World Health Organization (WHO) project, established in 2014 as part of the WHO's Global Action Disability Plan which aimed for better health for all people with disability. The project is a survey for community-dwelling persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) who have been discharged from a rehabilitation facility for at least 12 months. 

The project has finished the data collection phase and is currently analysis data and looking at outputs, with a large emphasis on research publications and consumer engagement around different themes within the survey.

The project provides important insights into the lived experiences of people with SCI and can be compared to the findings from the 21 other countries that also completed the survey. For Australian participants, it helped capture important information about health, wellbeing, employment, functioning and pain, among other areas. Gathering data and information about these areas is important and the findings can be used to help influence policy and service delivery design.

The information and findings from the project are anticipated to be used to better shape policy and services that directly affect people with SCI. 

The last 12 months of the project has had a large consumer engagement focus, including planning discussion/focus groups in conjunction with some of the data custodians across all states involved in the project. Focus groups are designed to discuss key themes within the survey (e.g. employment, pain, secondary health conditions) and to obtain feedback on these findings. The project is anticipated to complete another iteration of the survey in 2023 as the next phase for capturing regular and ongoing information about health, wellbeing, functioning and lived experiences of people with SCI. 

Current research findings and outputs are still being generated, with an Australian website currently being finalised that will be used to share outputs from the research, and will be a repository for publications and project information. 

Other project outcomes:

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