On Thursday 21st July we sent Shelley along to see the first specially adapted apartment designed to assist spinal injury patients on leaving hospital.
The newly furbished apartment is based in Barley House, Barley Close, Southgate. It is situated in the new flats by The Guinness Trust Partnership. Aspire are a charity who help spinal injury patients adapt into the world of being a wheelchair user.
We spoke to Krupesh Hirani, Policy & Research Officer for Aspire National Training Centre who told us “Aspire are a charity who help people who have been paralysed by spinal cord injury. Every eight hours a person in the UK is paralysed by a spinal cord injury. The housing programme is one of our main programmes. What we look at is housing people after their injury. The most common cause of a spinal injury is a road traffic accident so they will not have been a wheelchair user previously. They could live in a first floor flat. what that means is someone could be discharged into a setting which we think is not positive for their rehabilitation. Or they might have to be discharged to a care home or could be kept in hospital for a longer period of time, which is also not the best situation. So what we do through our housing programme is find temporary accomodation for wheelchair users to be discharged to while their long term housing solution is being looked at. Our tenants have a six month contract. In which time they are assisted in their rehabilitation and their requirements in their own home to help meet their needs. This apartment is the first in Crawley. We have 21 apartments such as this across the country. We lease the apartment from housing associations such as The Guinness Trust so if there are any housing associations which identify a need, we are very happy to discuss options. The apartments already in place were identified as being needed in that area by the NHS and we will carry on trying to identify the needs of such apartments in all areas. We already have apartments in Brighton all the way up to Glasgow. The apartment is part of the Guinness Trust’s 500th project and has been operational for just over a month”.
We then spoke to our local MP Henry Smith who told us “This is a really good and it’s great that Aspire have opened their twenty first unit here in Crawley. It is specifically designed to help people who have suffered a spinal cord injury. To be able to spend six months here, to be able to learn how to live a normal life again is great. the unit is specially adapted to help them so they know what they may need when returning back to their own home. With an injury of this kind happening every eight hours this type of work is essential to the community. Alot of people do not know about Aspire but that is not unusual as it is relatively rare to know someone with a spinal injury. It is really important that for the people who have to transform their lives they have the support from charities such as Aspire. It’s also wonderful that Aspire have chosen Crawley for their this new unit. Being able to be discharged from hospital is a benefit to everyone, including the cost on the NHS, so this serves as a great function to everyone involved. It also helps the wheelchair user learn what they may need adapting in their own home and what doesn’t. This type of injury is a devastating and very serious situation for those effected. It’s great to be aware of the help that is offered by such charities as Aspire”.
We met Mark at Barley House. Mark had recently been involved in an accident which left him paralysed. Mark has been in the apartment for a month now and looked like he was adapting very well to his new situation. We would like to wish Mark all the best for his future.
We took some pictures while visiting.
