Vocational rehabilitation to empower consumers following newly acquired spinal cord injury

BACKGROUND: Emerging early intervention vocational rehabilitation (EIVR) services aim to improve employment outcomes after SCI. Beyond employment, EIVR services present an opportunity to support psychological resources, potentially promoting coping and adjustment. The construct of psychological empowerment represents several such resources, including hope, self-efficacy, and motivation. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the extant literature on employment after SCI published since 2006, to synthesise the support for and usefulness of the psychological constructs that underpin empowerment in the return to work process, particularly as they pertain to the early phases of rehabilitation. METHODS: A quantitative approach to systematic review, combined with a narrative synthesis of the literature. RESULTS: Hope, self-efficacy, and motivation were found to be related to RTW after SCI. Research gaps were identified, particularly relating to studies with newly-injured participants. The findings were contextualised within an empowerment framework. CONCLUSIONS: An empowerment model of EIVR could serve to both promote employment outcomes and support psychological wellbeing during early recovery from SCI. Further research is needed to develop this model, establish its use in practice, and explore the benefits of EIVR for a person's psychological wellbeing.