Between cultural ideals and lived realities: a longitudinal rehabilitation narrative after spinal cord injury

This study aimed to unfold one person's long-term rehabilitation process.

Based on narratology, this study configured a rehabilitation narrative from a young woman's lived rehabilitation experiences after spinal cord injury and her experiences with healthcare and social services. Interviews were conducted at 2, 3, 6, 9, 12 months, 2, 5 and 10 years after her accident.

The process of resuming everyday life after spinal cord injury unfolded as a narrative shaped by lived experiences of disability and encounters with healthcare and social services. This narrative was characterised by a never-ending series of shifts between restoration and loss of capacity and function. This reflects that the narrative of the rehabilitee's attaining a meaningful life despite that permanent physical limitations may be a continuing struggle. If the rehabilitee's hopes and expectations deviate strongly from the support and services provided, tensions and frustrations may arise, potentially affecting the rehabilitation process and its outcome.

A rehabilitee's narrative is shaped by its context and the involved participants. Unfolding over time it illuminates challenges arising from misalignments between the rehabilitee's lived experience of life-changing health issues and the perspectives of healthcare and social service professionals.