Abstract
This article discusses service delivery for Spinal Cord Injured (SCI) in the Netherlands. In this wealthy country, almost everyone has access to domestic adaptations and other equipment, regardless of income and with low, or without user contributions. However, satisfaction with this system or its products is rarely examined. Subjects in this research are 318 SCI individuals between 18 and 65 years of age, living in the community at a mean time of 3.6 years after injury. Availability of accessible housing, domestic adaptations, wheelchairs and outdoor transportation is investigated. Satisfaction with available services and satisfaction with service delivery procedures is measured by self-developed questionnaires. Relationships between these satisfaction scores and measures for functional health status (SIP68) and life satisfaction (LSQ) are analyzed. The presence of domestic adaptations is high, and 78.3% said their houses were sufficiently adapted at the time of the interview. Wheelchairs were generally available and most respondents had more than one. However, many users had complaints about their wheelchairs: 35.9% about their manual wheelchairs and 47.5% about their electric wheelchairs. Public transport was rarely used, 51.1% of respondents had an adapted car. Having an adapted car was significantly related to the ability to drive independently. Satisfaction with available services was acceptable, but satisfaction with service delivery procedures was very low. Satisfaction with available services did have a significant relationship with functional health status when the influence of the type of injury was taken into account. Satisfaction with available services also had a significant relationship with life satisfaction, after the influence of functional health status was taken into account. Further research on this topic is recommended.
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Post, M., van Asbeck, F., van Dijk, A. et al. Services for spinal cord injured: availability and satisfaction. Spinal Cord 35, 109–115 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3100362
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.sc.3100362
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
Satisfaction scores can be used to assess the quality of care and service in spinal rehabilitation
Spinal Cord (2022)
-
SenseJoy, a pluggable solution for assessing user behavior during powered wheelchair driving tasks
Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation (2019)
-
Prevalence of and factors associated with expressed and unmet service needs reported by persons with spinal cord injury living in the community
Spinal Cord (2019)
-
Characteristics of persons with spinal cord injury who drive in Malaysia and its barriers: a cross sectional study
Spinal Cord (2018)
-
Prospective study of barriers to discharge from a spinal cord injury rehabilitation unit
Spinal Cord (2015)