Refugee people experience many trials prior to arriving in Australia and face ongoing challenges associated with re-settlement. Despite facing such difficulties many refugee people demonstrate enormous strength and resilience that facilitates their re-settlement process. The authors' experience however suggests that professionals working with refugee people tend to focus on the trauma story to the neglect of their strengths. At times this means resilience is overshadowed by a dominant Western deficits model that defines refugee people as traumatised victims. Pathologising the trauma story of refugee people may further alienate refugee people from full inclusion into Australian life by denying their inherent resilience in the face of extraordinary life experiences. This article reviews Australian and International literature to explore factors that contribute to refugee resilience such as personal qualities, support and religion. The review also identifies elements that may impede resilience including; language barriers, racism, discrimination, and labelling the trauma story. The literature suggests refugee resilience moves beyond the Western individualised notion of resilience to a more communal construction of resilience that includes refugee people's broader social context. The literature highlights important practice implications and the authors respond to the findings by reflecting on their own practice Journal of Social Inclusion, 3(2), 2012 56 experience and considering implications for a more inclusive anti-oppressive strengthsbased approach to work with refugee people.
Traditionally, adjustment to a serious injury such as spinal cord injury has been conceptualised as staged grieving process. Hope, in this tradition, is commonly defined as denial and considered counterproductive to positive adjustment. These concepts were challenged as the author observed the strength of clients' hope in the face of extremely confronting physical, social and environmental challenges following spinal cord injury. This paper presents qualitative data about the role of hope from the perspective of the person with spinal cord injury and considers the theoretical and clinical aspects of hope in the coping process. The data presented are a subset of data from a 10 year longitudinal study of a sample of 46 people with spinal cord injury. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted at discharge from hospital, 6, 12, 24, and 36 months postdischarge and again at 10 years post discharge. Results showed that 73% of the participants identified hope as an essential factor that helped them cope following their injury. Three main foci of hope emerged from the data set: (a) hope for a complete recovery, (b) hope for a cure, and (c) hope for a satisfying quality of life. Hope emerged as a strong theme in the overall adjustment and coping process. Clinical implications for working with people who sustain spinal cord injury are discussed. It is recommended that interventions that support and facilitate hope need to be developed and tested.Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those that have nothing else possess hope still. (Thales of Miletus)The motivating power of hope in the lives of clients in a spinal cord injuries rehabilitation setting has had a profound impact on my practice. The clients were people who had recently sustained a spinal cord injury (SCI). SCI is a devastating injury resulting in permanent paralysis, wheelchair dependence, and changes in most bodily functions and life roles.When I first began working in SCI rehabilitation, I regularly received referrals to see clients who were entrenched in denial. However, I often found a person who had
Study Design: Longitudinal panel design over 10 years. Objectives: To describe the health outcomes for people with spinal cord injury and identify how indicators of health change over time. Setting: Queensland, Australia. Methods: A structured interview consisting of measures of perceived health, medical service utilization, hospitalization and pressure sore occurrence was administered on six occasions over 10 years after discharge from the hospital following the initial rehabilitation episode. Results: The majority of respondents were relatively healthy over the course of the 10-year study and required minimal medical interventions or hospitalization. There was however a group of up to 20% of respondents who required extensive medical intervention, including hospitalization and pressure sore management. Conclusion: The findings have significant implications for health-care policy and strategic planning for the ongoing management of spinal cord injury. A biopsychosocial approach combining patient education, cognitive behavioral interventions, screening and treatment for affective disorders and environmental interventions is recommended to facilitate optimal health outcomes for people with spinal cord injury over the long term.
This study indicated that spirituality after SCI plays an important role for both the injured individual and their family members. Families draw upon a range of sources of spirituality, and these sources of spirituality may assist the family to move forward together after SCI. Further investigation of how health professionals can better address spirituality during spinal rehabilitation is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).
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