A109 Home living for SCI people in Canada

1. Perceptions on Well-being at Home
of Families with People with
Disabilities: A Psycho-Environmental
Perspective
Delphine Labbé, PhD1,2
Sylvie Jutras, PhD1
1Université du Québec à Montréal
2University of British Columbia

2. Well-being at home
 For people with and without disabilities
 Place to fulfill individual and familial needs
 Promotes an active and independent role in the community
 Physical and psychological health
 Commitment to work, social and civic life
 Internationally recognized as a right by the Convention on the
Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations, 2006)
 Despite the importance of home for people with disabilities
 Few studies on home, health and disabilities
 Not focused on the broad spectrum of needs
2

3. Psycho-environmental Potential Model
Shelter and
Security
Protection from physical elements and
threats to the person’s well-being
Social Contact
Facilitation or inhibition of interpersonal
contact and privacy
Symbolic
Identification
Information about the values, preferences
and goals of the users
Task
Instrumentality
Quality of equipment and spatial arrangements
for the accomplishment of specific tasks and activities
Pleasure
Gratification of simply being in a
given setting and the user’s positive affect
Growth
Various stimuli allowing users to
learn things about the world and themselves
6 functions
promoted or limited
3

4. Objectives
4
Explore the perception of the relation
between the house and the well-being
 Globally
 For specific places

5. Method
5

6. Participants
Individual Characteristic
SCI(n=31)
Relatives
(n=31)
Mean Age 45 51
Man (%) 71 29
In couple (%) 68 81
Working or
Studying (%)
29 60
Mean time
since injury
8 years
(SD=1.9)
Paraplegia (%) 48
6
Housing and household
characteristics (n=31)
Number of people in the
household (mean)
3
Relationship to
the person with
SCI (%)
Spouse 71
Child
or
parent
29
Moved after the injury 55
Mean number of years
living in the house
9

7. Interviews
 Simultaneously but separately with the SCI person
and their household member
 Closed and open-ended questions
 Series of 11 questions about the favourable physical features of
their house and how these features contributed to well-being at
home
 Series of 10 questions on unfavourable physical features of the
house and how they hampered well-being at home
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8. Results
8

9. Places and objects favourable to well-being
SCI and relatives SCI Relatives
8 places and 7 objects mentioned
Global
9
PlacesObjects

10. How well-being at home is promoted?
Great variety of explanation (n=27)
SCIand
relatives
• Territoriality
• Using and developing skills
• Activities with others
SCI
• Convenient for
work and leisure
• Learning about the
world
Relatives
• Size
• Privacy
10
Global

11. Places and objects unfavourable to well-being
For45 % : No places or objects
11
PlacesObjects
Global
SCI and relatives SCI Relatives

12. How well-being at home is hampered?
Lack of convenience for moving around
Inconvenience of size
Psychological and physical disinvestment
Lack of convenience for daily
living activities
12
Global
SCIand
relativesSCIRelatives

13. How each places contributes to well-being at home?
13
The kitchen is an
open space, so it’s an
enjoyable place to
entertain friends and
family. It’s where we
spend most of our
time. Everything is
within reach, if we
need to cook while
talking to someone,
it’s easy (SCI20, male 62,
retired)
Specific to place
Kitchen
SCI Relative
Open space
Activities with others
Ambience
Convenient to move
around
Appropriate size
Appropriate layout
Developing and using skills
Easiness of communication
Equipment easy to reach Expression of self
Common space Territoriality
Satisfaction of needs

14. How each places limits well-being at home?
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Kitchen
SCI Relatives
Stove
Limit development and use of skills
inadequate to fulfill their
needs
Common space
Inappropriate size
Lack of convenience for domestic activities
Lack of convenience to
move around
Life conditions
Specific to place
I like to sew but I
can’t use the table
anymore to cut my
fabrics; it’s not large
enough […] and my
husband sits there
watching me! He
always has to go to
the bathroom when
I’m cutting a piece of
fabric.So, it’s not
easy.” (FM27, female, 47
years old, spouse, working)

15. Conclusion
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16. Well-Being at home
1. Positive experience multifaceted
2. Negative experience more limited
3. Importance of specialization of room
4. Experience of people with SCI and their
relatives
 Similar but touched differently by the disabilities
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17. Well-being at home
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 Variation in wished level of contact
 Designing flexible space
Social contacts
highly
important
Impact on
accessibility
guide
For everyone

18. Well-being at home
For people with disabilities
Task
instrumentality
highly important
Home is central
for social
participation

19. Well-being at home
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For the relatives
Symbolic
identification
restricted
Impact of disability
needing more
consideration

20. Thank You
This research was supported by
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