Housing Needs and Priorities of People with Spinal Cord Injury/dysfunction: A Qualitative Study

Research Objectives: To better understand the housing needs and priorities of people with spinal cord injury/dysfunction (SCI/D).

Design: A qualitative descriptive study design was undertaken to explore the housing experiences of people with lived experience of SCI/D, their family caregivers, or accessible housing professionals from across Canada. Participants were recruited through referrals at rehabilitation hospitals, provincial SCI/D associations, and flyers. Participants were asked to complete a 45-to-60-minute semi-structured interview. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

Setting: Semi-structured interviews were conducted remotely, over the phone or by Zoom.

Participants: The inclusion criteria were English- or French-speaking adults with SCI/D and/or their family caregivers living in a community setting, or accessible housing professionals from across Canada. The exclusion criteria were persons with a significant cognitive impairment or language barrier.

Interventions: Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: Qualitative interviews.

Results: Ninety-nine people completed interviews to date (74 SCI/D; 4 family members; 21 professionals). Preliminary findings identify unique housing challenges and needs for people with SCI/D. Themes identified include, 1) the importance of specifically adapting homes to meet individual needs, 2) value of peer support and experiencing accessible home environments for decision making, 3) the importance of time since injury and age/life course considerations on housing needs, and 4) lack of funding and informational resources to support home accessibility.

Conclusions: People with SCI/D contend with multiple challenges in finding suitable homes to meet their needs, which may be influenced by a variety of factors (e.g., impairment, access to funding, geographic location, time since injury, peer support, etc.). The findings from this study can serve to inform the SCI/D community regarding decisions related to housing, and provides evidence to support advancements in practice and policy related to housing and rehabilitation outcomes.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors have no conflicts of interest.