SEED PROJECT: Enhancing emotional wellbeing and self-advocacy skills during vocational re-engagement after spinal cord injury: A co-designed peer mentorship intervention

About the Project

Researcher Name: Dr Emily Bray

People/organisations involved:      

Dr Jessie Mitchell, Research Fellow, The Hopkins Centre

Tania Goossen, Senior Vocational Rehabilitation Counsellor, Back2Work Project, Spinal Life Australia

Katie Hammond, Peer Support Team Leader, Spinal Life Australia

Meghan Nolan, Advanced Social Worker ‑ Clinical Team Leader, Spinal Injuries Unit, Division of Allied Health and Rehabilitation

Kirsten Hinchy, Advanced Social Worker, Transitional Rehabilitation Program, Queensland Spinal Cord Injury Service

Prof Tamara Ownsworth, Research Director, The Hopkins Centre, Griffith University 

Prof Timothy Geraghty, Director, The Hopkins Centre, Griffith University 

People who have a spinal cord injury (SCI) often experience poorer mental health than those without. Being able to work, study, or volunteer can help people cope better after SCI and improve their social participation and life satisfaction. However, people with SCI face barriers such as their health, stigma, and physical access. These can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety about starting these activities.

Peer support from other people who have had similar experiences is valued by many people with SCI. It can help them build skills to cope with stress and speak up for themselves. But it is not usually included in vocational rehabilitation, which aims to help people return to or start work, study, or volunteering.

We want to understand how to improve the emotional wellbeing and self-advocacy skills of people with SCI as they return to or start work, study or volunteering. To do this, we will partner with clinicians and people with SCI to design a peer mentorship program for people with SCI taking part in vocational rehabilitation. We will then test this program to see if it improves the emotional wellbeing and self-advocacy skills of people with SCI returning to or starting work, study, or volunteering. 

Aim and objective:

This project aims to:

• co-design a peer mentoring intervention for people with SCI that focuses on enhancing emotional wellbeing and self-advocacy skills during the vocational re-engagement process, and
• pilot the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and scope to sustain its delivery in practice.

Expected outcomes and impact:

The main translation outcome of this participatory and co-design project is the initial design and evaluation of a peer mentorship intervention for people with SCI that focuses on enhancing emotional wellbeing and self-advocacy skills during vocational re-engagement. This project will also generate knowledge on existing vocational and mental health support available to people with SCI and their unmet psychological support needs in the context of return-to-work. The multiple perspectives gleaned from vocational rehabilitation specialists, mental health and peer support experts, as well as those with lived experience of SCI, may inform strategies that service providers can implement in practice to support individuals with SCI who are seeking to return to work, study, or volunteer activities.

The potential benefits of co-designing a peer mentorship program to support emotional wellbeing and self-advocacy during the vocational rehabilitation process are far-reaching in terms of value to individuals, communities and society as follows:

• Buffering stress and mental health challenges and supporting individuals’ self-advocacy skills to achieve satisfying and durable employment outcomes.
• Providing growth, capacity building and leadership opportunities for peer facilitators.
• Creating a feasible model of psychosocial support with scope to be implemented and sustained in practice through existing SCI services delivering vocational rehabilitation and peer support. This will extend the support services and capacity of Spinal Life Australia and the Back2Work program, as a leading specialist vocational rehabilitation provider for people living with SCI, with the potential to be scaled up through other SCI and disability services across Australia.
• Reducing the socio-economic burden of SCI, particularly in terms of loss of productivity (lower employment rates, unemployment, and absenteeism) for which lifetime costs are estimated at approximately $21.7 billion in Australia (Australian Treasury, 2020).

Project status and timeframe:

Ethics and governance for this project will be established in early 2026 with intervention development beginning in July 2026 and piloting beginning in October 2026.