Spiritual issues associated with traumatic-onset disability

Purpose : The present study used a qualitative approach to discover the con cepts used by people with a sudden-onset disability to express issues of sp irituality. Using a cross-sectional time frame, the study sought to underst and how spiritual issues were experienced at the onset of a disability from the perspective of the disabled person him or herself. The study also comp ared the perceptions of brain injury respondents to spinal cord injury resp ondents. Method: The qualitative approach was chosen to capture a detailed understan ding of perceptions about spirituality, and the relationship of the disabil ity to the disabled person's spiritual beliefs. The sample consisted of 16 individuals, all of whom had experienced a spinal cord injury or a brain in jury. Results : The main findings of the study were as follows: (1) Participants recovering from a disability described spiritual issues relating to five th emes which arose directly from the data (awareness, closeness, trust, purpo se, vulnerability) and relating to three relationships found throughout the literature on spirituality (intrapersonal, interpersonal and transpersonal ). These eight dimensions can be combined to form a matrix, which serves as a framework for considering spiritual issues associated with disability; a nd (2) There were differences in the spiritual concepts described by the pa rticipants with brain injury compared to those with spinal cord injury. In particular, those with brain injuries seemed to place greater emphasis on t he importance of their families, and to be more aware of the need for trust in view of their memory deficits. Conclusions : These results represent one of the earliest attempts to take an empirical approach to the development of theory in the area of spiritual ity and disability. Building on theory developed in other populations (pall iative care and ageing), the study offers a theoretical model for clinician s, educators and researchers to better understand spirituality in the conte xt of disability.