Vocational Participation and Wellbeing in people with Spinal Cord Injury & Damage
About the Project
People and organisations involved
Tania Goossen
Belinda McLeod
Returning to work is a common personal rehabilitation goal after spinal cord injury and damage (SCI/D). However, employment is not uniformly beneficial for health and wellbeing. When work or other roles are poorly matched to a person’s abilities, interests and needs, or pursued without enough choice or support, these can contribute to fatigue, distress, and withdrawal. PhD research by Joyce Yi aims to better understand how participation vocational activities more broadly (including, work, study, volunteering, caregiving and other roles) influences wellbeing after SCI/D, what makes participation meaningful, and what supports or shapes people’s vocational pathways over time.
Aim and objectives
- To examine how vocational participation, goals, and access to support change over time after SCI/D, and how vocational experiences relate to wellbeing.
- To synthesise existing evidence on the personal, psychosocial, and contextual factors that influence wellbeing in the context of vocational participation after SCI/D during the early post-injury period.
- To develop an integrated understanding of the meaning of vocational participation after SCI/D, and to identify the personal and socio-environmental factors that promote wellbeing.
Expected outcomes and impact
The main outcome of this project will be an integrated understanding of the meaning, pathways, and determinants of vocational participation after SCI/D over time, leading to the development of a theoretical framework and practical recommendations to support meaningful vocational participation and wellbeing.
The project findings will be of interest to multiple stakeholders, including people with SCI/D, clinicians, rehabilitation providers, community organisations, vocational services, and employers. Outcomes will inform more personalised rehabilitation and vocational support pathways, improve awareness of the meaning of diverse avenues of vocational participation after SCI/D, and guide more targeted strategies to support wellbeing and long-term participation outcomes.
Project status and timeframe
This PhD project commenced in March 2026 and will involve three interrelated studies. The project will include analysis of existing longitudinal data, a systematic review of the literature, and a mixed methods study involving surveys and interviews with people with SCI/D.
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