Training apartment in community for spinal cord injured patients: a model

This paper describes the setting of a spinal cord injury (SCI) training apartment in the community. The purposes of its location in the community as a predischarge strategy are to regain confidence in the skills relearned to live independently, to initiate positive interpersonal relationships between individuals and family or other significant caretaker persons after the separation due to long hospitalization, to aid the patient and the rehabilitation team in determining the need for further rehabilitation, and to reduce length of hospitalization. The management and accountability, physical design and layout of the apartment, and patient assignments are described. All of the 32 patients were discharged to noninstitutional settings, 30 to homes and 2 to residential schools. After 15 months none required readmission for preventable complications.