How do you help patients with a spinal cord injury overcome resistance to rehabilitation? - Terrie Price, PhD

Most folks are resistant to rehab for a reason, there’s something that they’re afraid of. And I think some of what we try to do is ground it back to — what are your current goals? I have no idea whether that individual will recover fully as they wish, but we say we know what you have now, we know what you need to deal with. So if we can tie into something they really like and enjoy, and then address the fear the individual has, we might make baby steps. And it is important to really conceptualize rehab in a broad way. There are many things that we do that are rehab orientated that don’t involve going down to the gym and working on a mat. That can be self-care activities, well that’s rehab, that’s helping you, look how you’re gaining control. So it probably does circle back to trying to understand what are the factors of the resistance. Are there some fears or maybe some avoidance things that are going on? And being honest to deal with them, those are very genuine concerns. I remind folks that rehab is something we do with you and not to you; we can’t do it without you and subsequently you’re a partner, you’re a collaborator. If you can do it better, then we can do it better with your participation.