Spinal cord injury and the joy of work

Abstract

Work, which plays such a prominent part in the narrative of human life, is central to a person's happiness (or unhappiness). Because this is so, the fact that spinal cord injury (SCI) tends to take a person out of the workforce (sometimes permanently) is recognized as a central part of post-injury loss. This paper draws on the insights of the virtue tradition and the discipline of positive psychology, to explore the notion of happiness (well-being) and its relationship to the vocations of people with SCI. In particular, it describes the virtues that can contribute to a person's capacity to obtain and sustain employment. This includes virtues relating to dependency and independency, as well as the role of hope, optimism and the like. It concludes with a brief discussion of the contribution that people with SCI can make to the culture of the workplace.

Grieving my broken body: an autoethnographic account of spinal cord injury as an experience of grief

“…I spent the next 7 months in Prince of Wales hospital in Sydney and returned home in May 2011. In the period of my in-hospital rehabilitation, and in the months and years following my return home, I wrote about my experiences; on a blog (shaneclifton.com), on Facebook, in two scholarly journal articles [2,3], and finally in a memoir, Husbands Should Not Break. Writing about my experiences (with the aid of voice recognition software) became my outlet, my way of processing the grief of my loss.…”

“…In line with the basic trajectory of positive psychology and the virtue tradition, resiliency is enhanced by certain traits and qualities, which include the capacity to find meaning and purpose, to help others, to develop deep relationships, to express gratitude, to learn to savour experiences, to exercise the virtues and strengths in absorbing and challenging activities (finding flow, especially in the workplace), to be willing to laugh at life's absurdities, and so forth [3,7,23,24]. The importance of a positive outlook for resiliency and well-being is perhaps nowhere more counter intuitive (at least in terms of popular assumptions) then the contribution of hope to the adjustment process following an SCI.…”

“…Grief: stages, varieties of experiences, and stories I have elsewhere appropriated the contribution of positive psychology to SCI well-being [2,3], and so have no intention of disputing the findings outlined above. It is my contention, however, that in focusing on positivity (in all its manifestations), the prevailing literature has lost sight of the fact that SCI constitutes a loss that is analogously equivalent to the loss of a loved one -precisely because losing one's own body is to lose an intimate companion.…”

Integrated services and early intervention in the vocational rehabilitation of people with spinal cord injuries

“…Furthermore, engaging in paid work is a way of remaining productive and therefore reinforcing self-efficacy and self-esteem. 20 There is also evidence to suggest that working post SCI is associated with a longer, healthier life. 21 This underscores the potentially damaging effects of allowing this population to 'slip through the cracks' of current VR service delivery models and highlights an opportunity for improving such services through the introduction of an early intervention component.…”

Editorial Review: Touring the Archive 1999–2017 and Mapping the Future of Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research

“…Articles in the Journal are exploring both the barriers to work for disabled people (Mik-Meyer, 2017) and also the appropriateness of making work the marker of a good citizen (Holmqvist, 2008). This work does not deny that employment can be associated with well-being (Clifton, 2014) and a successful transition into adulthood (Båtevik & Myklebust, 2006). However, it also stresses the need for support to be there for work to be both enriching and stable (Roulstone et al, 2014).…”