The Voice - Spinal Cord Injury Alberta (SCI)

Join VAD as we learn about our member organizations. 

In today's podcast we speak with Shaun Dyer from SCI and learn about the programs and resources they offer the community. 

Together we HOLD the Power!

Transcript

00:00:00 Teresa

Welcome to the voice of Albertans with Disabilities, AKA VAD Societies' Podcast for May 2022. I'm Teresa Jackson.

00:00:08 Teresa

Your host and VADS program and service manager.

00:00:10 Teresa

Thanks for joining us today.

00:00:12 Teresa

In today's podcast, I'll be talking to Shaun Dyer from Spinal Cord Injury - SCI, Alberta.

00:00:19 Teresa

Shaun's role at spinal cord injury - Alberta is chief executive officer.

00:00:24 Teresa

VAD has started to meet with our organizational membership to learn about the resources that are available to our iVAD at or individual Members and within the disability community.

00:00:33 Teresa

I wanted to get Shaun on the show to share his insights with you and talk about spinal cord injury- Alberta and the resources that this great organization offers.

00:00:42 Teresa

Together we hold the power, please.welcome, Shaun.

00:00:45 Teresa

Hello, Shaun.

00:00:46 Teresa

Please take a moment and briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your role.

00:00:51 Shaun

Hi Teresa, thanks.

For having me here, my name is as you said, I'm Shaun Shaun Dyer.

00:00:56 Shaun

The chief executive officer at Spinal Cord Injury, Alberta.

00:00:59 Shaun

I have been in the role for a year and a half.

00:01:01 Shaun

Feel like I'm learning something new every day.

00:01:04 Teresa

Nice so SCI Alberta supports its clients through its services in client support and service coordination, community development and systematic change.

00:01:15 Teresa

Peer Program Information Services and active living.

00:01:19 Teresa

So I have a few questions about SCI Alberta to gather information for our listeners.

00:01:24 Teresa

How does your organization work with in full participation, and inclusion to assist clients?

00:01:31

Well after a.

00:01:32 Shaun

Spinal cord injury.

00:01:33 Shaun

You can imagine it's extraordinarily disorienting, and it you know changes people lives, not just the people, not just the patient, but, their family and their support services and.

00:01:45 Shaun

The support network I should say.

00:01:48 Shaun

We take a.

00:01:48 Shaun

Broad approach, our belief is that every.

00:01:52 Shaun

Every person should have the opportunity.

00:01:55 Shaun

To thrive, not just get by, not just barely scrape through.

00:01:59 Shaun

But we believe that every patient, every client of ours has, could have an opportunity to thrive despite their injury.

00:02:06 Shaun

And so we work on multi levels, particularly around peer support, helping clients and patients access.

00:02:16 Shaun

Services get reoriented following injury.

00:02:20 Shaun

We work with.

00:02:21 Shaun

Rehab and hospital facilities here in the province we have a great relationship with the Glen Rose Hospital in Edmonton and the university and the Royal Albert and So what we often will do is when someone is injured we are on the scene pretty quickly, particularly if we can.

00:02:39 Shaun

If we can meet clients and patients.

00:02:40 Shaun

In the acute phase.

00:02:42 Shaun

In their hospital stay, that's ideal, because the sooner we can connect with people the better.

00:02:48 Shaun

And then begins a process that that's as unique as a fingerprint.

00:02:52 Shaun

Really, everybody is different and everybody has different needs and so.

00:02:56 Shaun

One of the Common things that people want to know as soon as you know shortly after injury is.

00:03:03 Shaun

Where can I get support funding, supports, government support?

00:03:07 Shaun

How do I access, services?

00:03:08 Shaun

And  with our team of staff, many of whom have lived experience themselves.

00:03:15 Shaun

We begin helping to navigate with the clients.

00:03:20 Shaun

Towards these support.

00:03:21 Shaun

Services and like I said, they it depends entirely on the client and on.

00:03:26 Shaun

The patient so.

00:03:27 Teresa

Do you only work with adults or do you work with teens as well?

00:03:30 Shaun

We work with everyone - we've had.

00:03:32 Shaun

We've had clients who's young as I believe 10 right up.

00:03:36 Shaun

We work with people right up as long as they're as long as they.

00:03:39 Shaun

Want to engage us?

00:03:39 Shaun

We don't turn anyone away.

00:03:41

Right?

00:03:41 Teresa

You kind of touched on this a bit, but how does SCI help foster independence in the community?

00:03:47 Shaun

Well, Teresa, as you can imagine, when someone suffers a spinal cord injury it most often, if not always, means that someone is going to be a wheelchair user  -you

00:03:59 Shaun

Know you go from being.

00:04:02 Shaun

Walking and engaging the world as as you and I do.

00:04:06 Shaun

Come outside of a wheelchair and all of a sudden everything is sort of turned upside down and you've got to learn how to mobile in the community.

00:04:15 Shaun

And So what we do is.

00:04:17 Shaun

We will do things like webinars, coaching with new injured patients through our peer support, helping them understand and access equipment.

00:04:27 Shaun

So if someone needs a wheelchair, obviously it's not something that people typically think about in normal times, and so when an injury occurs.

00:04:38 Shaun

One of the first things we do is work with a patient to help them find and access the adaptive equipment like wheelchairs and.

00:04:47 Shaun

Give them advice on how to modify homes.

00:04:50 Shaun

You know what it's like.

00:04:51 Shaun

Right, you know you.

00:04:52 Shaun

You've got your home set up in a certain way, but when you have a.

00:04:55 Shaun

Spinal cord injury and returning to.

00:04:57 Shaun

Home means that in order to navigate and to access that part of your life, that part of your community.

00:05:04 Shaun

Oftentimes, if not always, modifications have to take place.

00:05:08 Shaun

In in the patients home in the client home, and so we help navigate that.

00:05:13 Shaun

A lot of emotional, you know, emotional support is required and you know our people.

00:05:18 Shaun

Our peers with lived experience are really excellent in.

00:05:21 Shaun

That area where?

00:05:23 Shaun

We help people understand what's happening to them.

00:05:25 Shaun

What has happened to them?

00:05:27 Shaun

We help, we help them understand what can be their normal reality.

00:05:31 Shaun

What can be their new normal?

00:05:33 Shaun

Again, all going back to the principle of adapting, adjusting, and thriving.

00:05:37 Shaun

And again I can't stress enough the value we place on thriving and so in order to thrive in community you need.

00:05:44 Shaun

To be able to.

00:05:46 Shaun

Access it.

00:05:47 Shaun

Again I go back to what I said a minute ago about you know wheelchairs, adaptive equipment, adaptive services in the home.

00:05:53 Shaun

Working with clients support Network to get their family or their or their physicians or whatever the case may be.

00:06:02 Shaun

Whatever that network support networks look like for a client.

00:06:09 Shaun

We integrate with that and provide advice practical support, even from occasionally.

00:06:17 Shaun

We provide funding support.

00:06:18 Shaun

We have a.

00:06:21 Shaun

We have a fund at SCI, Alberta called the Helping Way Fund and that is used exclusively to help people get gear, get equipment, get services that they need that they otherwise couldn't afford out of pocket, and so we're able to help a little bit with that on that side of things.

00:06:39 Shaun

So we want people to be able to eventually.

00:06:41 Shaun

Once they've gone through.

00:06:42 Shaun

The acute phase and have begun their rehab.

00:06:45 Shaun

We want people to start thinking right away about OK, what does my new normal look like?

00:06:50 Shaun

What does it mean to take a bus?

00:06:52 Shaun

What does it mean to get into a restaurant hotels?

00:06:56 Shaun

All those things that were.

00:06:58 Shaun

Second nature, when prior to an injury become really challenging post injury.

00:07:03 Shaun

So our services and supports our client services.

00:07:06 Shaun

Our peer support network works with works with.

00:07:09 Shaun

Clients to help them.

00:07:11 Shaun

Adapt to a new way of life every day.

00:07:13 Teresa

Are - you said the Helping way fund do?

00:07:16 Teresa

You need a referral for that.

00:07:18 Shaun

You do typically.

00:07:19 Shaun

The referral comes through a social worker at one.

00:07:22 Shaun

Of the rehab facilities, that's.

00:07:24 Shaun

The typical one where you know social workers know of us and they know of the fund.

00:07:30 Shaun

So that's one way that people access the access.

00:07:34 Shaun

Sometimes our peers when they're meeting with people in the hospitals in the rehab.

00:07:38 Shaun

Facilities they are able to.

00:07:40 Shaun

Right away, no, you know.

00:07:42 Shaun

Offer that service and offer that that mode of support to the clients right in the hospital.

00:07:48 Teresa

Shaun, your website lists the five following areas of support, client services, community development, peer program Information Services, and active living.

00:07:58 Teresa

Can you tell us about some of the different programs that are?

00:08:01 Teresa

Offered in these.

00:08:02 Shaun

Sure, well we have.

00:08:05 Shaun

I've mentioned we do a couple of things.

00:08:07 Shaun

One of the things.

00:08:09 Shaun

That we're really proud of is our peer program.

00:08:12 Shaun

Our peer program is 

00:08:14 Shaun

The bread and butter of spinal cord injury, it's.

00:08:16 Shaun

What we were founded upon.

00:08:18 Shaun

It's what we spend the majority of our time.

00:08:21 Shaun

Developing as an organization because you can't place a high enough value on the role. Someone with a shared experience has in a client's recovery.

00:08:34 Shaun

So our peers, as I mentioned before, often will meet clients will meet patients right in the hospital, either in the acute phase or in the.

00:08:42 Shaun

Rehab phase

00:08:43 Shaun

And we begin to to offer services like.

00:08:47 Shaun

Uh, we we have webinars we have every month we have a pure webinar.

00:08:55 Shaun

We have peer groups we've gotta out of our Calgary branch.

00:08:58 Shaun

We have a women peer group that meets.

00:09:02 Shaun

I believe every month.

00:09:04 Shaun

And talks about everything from sexual health.

00:09:07 Shaun

To living in adapt, you know, navigating an adaptive process, just day-to-day life like and you know.

00:09:16 Shaun

So that's our peer program and our peer program is something we're very proud of.

00:09:21 Shaun

In terms of our active living side of things, we believe that physical activity is crucial to a client's overall wellbeing and ability to adapt and adjust and thrive. We refer in Edmonton. We refer a lot of clients to another rehab facility.

00:09:39 Shaun

Once they've been.

00:09:41 Shaun

Discharged stay from the Glen Rose Hospital.

00:09:44 Shaun

The Glen Rose Rehab hospital.

00:09:45 Shaun

We have a partner in in the Edmonton area that we referred to.

00:09:49 Shaun

That's ReYu paralysis Recovery Center, so we refer a lot of people there, but then out of Calgary out of our Calgary office, we have our own neuro rehab center.

00:09:58 Shaun

That's equipped with several pieces of, you know, high level equipment that help people start to regain some physical mobility.

00:10:06 Shaun

Physical health one of the things that the most popular.

00:10:10 Shaun

Piece of equipment in our.

00:10:11 Shaun

Neuro Rehab Center in Calgary.

00:10:13 Shaun

Is our functional electronic stimulation bike FS bike.

00:10:17 Shaun

And what that does is.

00:10:18 Shaun

People come in and they transferred from their.

00:10:21 Shaun

Wheelchair to the FCS bike, our exercise physiologists set them up with electrodes on their on their legs on their leg muscles and the machine literally fires their muscles for them so that they can actually bike and begin to recover and maintain muscle definition in their legs.

00:10:42 Shaun

We're in the process.

00:10:43 Shaun

Right now of securing a second FCS bike because that piece.

00:10:48 Shaun

Of equipment is used.

00:10:49 Shaun

All day, every day.

00:10:50 Shaun

And it's really exciting when people sit down on get, get back into the bike and see their limbs moving and see their legs going again.

00:10:59 Shaun

And it's just there.

00:10:59 Shaun

It's really beautiful to watch.

00:11:01 Shaun

Actually, client services is not a lot dissimilar to our peer program, but our client services we focus on helping people.

00:11:11 Shaun

Access tools support funding streams, so helping people get connected to let's say, how do you navigate an application form for to get funding for a wheelchair?

00:11:23 Shaun

Most people don't have a clue how that's how that works.

00:11:28 Shaun

And so our people are our team is ready and willing to help steer a person through that process.

00:11:34 Shaun

So client services is really as it sounds.

00:11:39 Shaun

What does a client?

00:11:40 Shaun

Need and what can we do to support?

00:11:42 Shaun

Them in achieving and accessing.

00:11:44 Shaun

That one of.

00:11:45 Shaun

Our other programs is community access for adults and continuing care.

00:11:48 Shaun

Or cap CC  - cap CC program.

00:11:52 Shaun

We work with long.

00:11:53 Shaun

Term care facilities.

00:11:54 Shaun

To help people who are confined to a long term facility still access and gain access to the community, so that can be everything from going to movies to concerts, the to sporting events just to the mall.

00:12:08 Shaun

Just getting out.

00:12:09 Shaun

We work.

00:12:10 Shaun

To reduce that sense of isolation for clients.

00:12:15 Shaun

That's just a broad overview of some of our programs and services.

00:12:19 Teresa

You guys do a lot.

00:12:21 Teresa

You support your clients through many challenging transitions, including relationships, sexuality, parenting, aging, recreation, education, employment.

00:12:31 Teresa

Aside from a referral from the patient places, how can somebody get involved with the SGI?

00:12:39 Shaun

Well, it's there's myriad ways to do that, Teresa.

00:12:44 Shaun

You know you mentioned.

00:12:45 Shaun

Obviously the referrals in the connection right there in the in the acute phase or in the rehab phase in the hospital facilities.

00:12:51 Shaun

People can just pick up the phone and call us.

00:12:53 Shaun

We're really we're really great with answering telephone inquiries, email enquiries.

00:12:58 Shaun

We've got a great website that people can go on and get linked up with.

00:13:03 Shaun

Client support workers peers.

00:13:05 Shaun

Basically, any way you can think of to get in touch with us, we can.

00:13:09 Shaun

We can we can do.

00:13:10 Shaun

It's not difficult.

00:13:11 Shaun

One of the things that we're really proud of is.

00:13:13 Shaun

That we won't.

00:13:13 Shaun

Turn anyone away, we will do whatever we can to provide support and services to whomever reaches out to us. And I think it's really important to underscore here Teresa, that.

00:13:24 Shaun

We don't get involved with clients to do things for them.

00:13:27 Shaun

We get involved with clients to help them become independent and to be help them become to adapt to their new realities.

00:13:35 Shaun

And so we see ourselves very much as partners instead of doers, and we find that the most successful.

00:13:43 Shaun

Transition to a new normal is when clients and you know one of our team work.

00:13:50 Shaun

In partnership like, that's how we roll.

00:13:52 Teresa

Can you share your thoughts on Shaun how spinal cord injury Alberta contributes to the disability community to help individuals better their lives?

00:14:00 Shaun

I keep going back to the, you know, one of the things that we believe in most strongly is that everybody should have an opportunity to thrive.

00:14:10 Shaun

And let's say someone if someone is struggling with.

00:14:13 Shaun

An ill-fitting.

00:14:15 Shaun

Wheelchair, for instance, that that has an impact on their ability to navigate the world, and so we will come alongside them and help them find adjustments.

00:14:25 Shaun

Help them find vendors to help adjust their chairs.

00:14:29 Shaun

Everything we do, Teresa is intended to help people access.

00:14:34 Shaun

Their life, their community, whatever that community looks like for them.

00:14:37 Shaun

So we advocate for accessible accessibility features like curb cuts and wider door frames, accessible doors in facilities in restaurants, etc.

00:14:51 Shaun

You know we, we take that.

00:14:53 Shaun

The barriers the client face and work try and remove.

00:14:57 Shaun

Those barriers so it can be any.

00:14:58 Shaun

Number of different.

00:14:59 Shaun

Things and as you know, accessibility is A is a multi-nuanced idea.

00:15:08 Shaun

Yeah, and so we really tailor our supports to whatever those people or whatever our clients are facing in terms of barriers to accessing the community.

00:15:16 Teresa

Can you tell our listeners how to get ahold of spinal cord injury?

00:15:19 Teresa

Alberta if they want more information?

00:15:22 Shaun

Sure, well.

00:15:23 Shaun

You can go.

00:15:24 Shaun

To our website, that's our probably our most common and easiest way to get a hold of us, and that is sci-ab.ca.

00:15:31 Shaun

So spinal cordinjury-ab.ca.

00:15:34 Shaun

But it's just pronounced.

00:15:35 Shaun

SCI-ab.ca

00:15:39 Shaun

That's one way we have a phone number.

00:15:42 Shaun

People can call toll.

00:15:43 Shaun

Free number that's 18886545444 So if you call that number, you'll be connected with someone in our Information Services side and that person will help triage that client needs with one of our to.

00:15:59 Shaun

One of our team.

00:16:00 Teresa

Is there anything else that I should have asked that I haven't?

00:16:03 Shaun

No, you know you asked great questions and.

00:16:05 Shaun

I think I feel like we really covered.

00:16:08 Shaun

Covered what we needed to cover here.

00:16:10 Teresa

Wonderful, so thank you for your time and energy today Shaun.

00:16:15 Teresa

Your support of the Community is a value to all spinal cord injury.

00:16:18 Teresa

Alberta is an organizational member of VAD and the link to their website can be accessed on our membership list online.

00:16:25 Teresa

Individuals looking to access bad members can do so at vadsociety.ca/social-action. Thank you again.

00:16:35 Teresa

For joining VAD’s podcasts, voice of Albertans with disabilities is across disability nonprofit organization of and for the people with disabilities.

00:16:44 Teresa

That is guided by the principles of accessibility, equity and inclusion. Learn about VAD services on our website at vadsociety.ca or call 780-488-9088 For more information.

00:16:58 Teresa

If you have a topic you would like to hear more about in a podcast, please email Teresa at VAD@vadsociety.ca.

00:17:05 Teresa

With topic ideas, speaker suggestions or your feedback?

00:17:09 Teresa

Signing off for today together we hold the power.