Societal services and traumatic spinal cord injury: A multifaced interaction

Abstract: The licentiate thesis is based on three papers. The aim of the research is to elucidate and analyze how societal services in practice are made available (or not available) and are utilized (or not utilized) by a group of individuals with traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI). The first article is an inventory of Swedish societal support and services that one can apply for after a traumatic SCI. Twenty-five such forms are identified, which are primarily administered by two authorities: the local (municipal) authority and the social insurance office. The consumers expressed their frustration with this organization and the feelings of being checked up on and called into question. The second article analyzes how general ethical guidelines are challenged by situated ethics in the design context. This corresponds here to how the intentions that motivate the allocation of societal services are challenged by the experiences of the people directly affected when it comes to treatment, degree of complexity, and the transparency and predictability of the systems. The third article deals with inpatient care utilization by an SCI group in Sweden and the usefulness of this data in surveying the group’s total utilization. In an effort to validate the contents of this database, it became apparent that it was impossible to establish the group’s total inpatient care utilization. The articles also discuss methodological aspects of the surveying and documentation of societal services.