A resiliência em pessoas com lesão medular que estão no mercado de trabalho: uma abordagem psicossomática

Abstract

Introduction: Paraplegia may be caused by physical deficiency as a result of a spinal cord injury, often being necessary the use of wheelchair for locomotion by the injured person. On top of reduced mobility and other clinical consequences, people with spinal cord injury might have to deal with emotional and social impacts. Epidemiological studies show that most of spinal cord injury patients are young male adults, what makes returning to work an extremely important topic. Furthermore, the relevance of this study is justified/highlighted by the recent movement for inclusion of handicapped people in the work environment, as outlined in the quote law in Brazil. Reduced mobility, as well as some environmental barriers (physical barriers and society s atittudes) may be risk factors that could negatively affect the development of these young adults, once they could alter their roles in their families and in the society (socially and professionally). There comes the importance of studying these people s resilience which involves the ability to cope and positively adapt when dealing with adversities, and their capacity to learn from these situations. Returning to work might represent the re-start of their personal development after the spinal cord injury has occurred. Objectives: to collect social-demographics and resilience characteristics of 60 participants with spinal cord injury, to compare these characteristics between 30 worker with 30 nonworker participants, and to collect the psychological aspects of this study sample from the resilience results. Method: A Social-Demographic Questionnaire and the Questionário de Resiliência Adulto Reivich-Shatté/Barbosa were used to collect the data. The data statistical analysis showed the social-demographic and resilience characteristics of the study sample, as well as the comparison of these characteristics between the two groups. From the data analysis, it was possible to collect some psychological aspects of the study sample. Results: the study sample showed similar characteristics to the epidemiological studies done with spinal cord injury population as it relates to sex, age and how the spinal cord injury was acquired. When comparing the two groups, no significant differences were found for the resilience factors. However, the data showed that environmental factors (physical barriers and society s attitude), and the difficulty to have autonomy are factors that could make it more challenging for people with spinal cord injury to return to work. It also was possible to collect some psychological aspects of the sample based on the resilience factors results. That showed the importance of the psychologists in helping people with spinal cord injury to deal with their emotions and to better develop their resilience factors. This would allow them to return to their personal development, including their capacity to rebuild a new professional identity