Focus Groups Provide Insights About Mental Health Needs of People With Spinal Cord Injury

As part of ongoing research, the Center for Rehabilitation Outcomes Research at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab held focus groups with individuals living with spinal cord injury (SCI) to better understand their mental health concerns. Participants emphasized the need for greater access to community resources and mental health services.

Behind the MSKTC: Meet Cindy Cai, PhD

Cindy Cai, PhD, is principal investigator and project director of the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC). She has worked hard to make the center a go-to destination for free, easy-to-understand, research-based resources, including the MSKTC Factsheets for people living with SCI, traumatic brain injury and burn injury.

Meet Cindy

Available Now: Updated Fact Sheet About

Exercise After Spinal Cord Injury

The MSKTC has released an updated Factsheet, Exercise After Spinal Cord Injury. Learn about the importance of regular exercise; modifications for exercising; how to build a fitness plan and stick to it; troubleshooting barriers to exercise; and more.

Get the Factsheet

SCI Research Opportunities

Researchers at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Northwestern University and Indiana University want to learn more about air travel from the perspective of people with physical disabilities. They are seeking participants for focus groups as well as for a study that involves documenting travel through photographs and interviews.

Take this online screening to see if you qualify.

Researchers at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab are seeking current and former home and community-based services (HCBS) recipients to test survey questions designed to measure the person-centeredness of their services.

Eligible participants will complete two or more one-hour surveys online or via phone or Zoom.

Take this online screening to see if you are eligible.

INside the OUTcomes: A Rehabilitation Research Podcast

In case you missed it: Listen to our recent episode about loneliness and SCI.

Our guests are experts from the Center of Innovation for Complex Chronic Healthcare in the Department of Veterans Affairs: Sherri LaVela, PhD, MPH, research health scientist, and Marissa Wirth, lead social science program coordinator.

In the episode, learn how and why loneliness affects people with SCI, and hear about new research focused on reducing the impact of loneliness.

Listen on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts ⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube ⁠⁠⁠⁠.

The Midwest Regional Spinal Cord Injury Care System (MRSCICS) at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab is a leading center for innovative, integrated, interdisciplinary research and care for persons with spinal cord injury. It manages several research projects, both unique to MRSCICS and in collaboration with other SCI Model Systems around the nation. MRSCICS also contributes data to the National Spinal Cord Injury Model System Database, established in 1973 as a repository of data collected through the collaborative efforts of federally funded SCI Model Systems.

Read our archive for past issues of MRSCICS Matters.

For questions or comments, email outcomesresearch@sralab.org

This newsletter is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR grants 90DPKT0007 and 90SIMS0015). The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily represent the policy of NIDILRR and you should not assume endorsement by the federal government.