Gothenburg Competence Centre for Spinal Cord Injury
The Gothenburg Competence Centre for Spinal Cord Injury is a Swedish hub for spinal cord injury knowledge. Our goal is to empower people affected by spinal cord injury to live life on their own terms—with greater autonomy and quality of life.
We offer courses, meetups, and networks for individuals living with an injury, those supporting someone who is, and professionals working in care and rehabilitation. Our events provide opportunities to gain insights, exchange experiences, and discover smart strategies to tackle daily challenges and prevent complications.
We collaborate with healthcare providers, academia, advocacy groups, and decision-makers—both locally and internationally—to support and empower people with spinal cord injuries.
Contact us
Don’t hesitate to email us if you have any inquiries or would like to colloborate with us:
Resources available in English
We use Swedish for most of our courses and meetup. However, we do have a few resources available in English. Find out more below!
Trailer (click CC to turn on subtitles)
Spinal cord injury introductory course
We offer a free online course suitable for anyone who wants to learn more about the nervous system, spinal cord injuries and their consequences – especially those who don’t know much about it beforehand.
Click here to register. You change the language on that page to English by clicking on the flag. Once you’ve logged in you can change the course language to English by clicking on ”SV” in the upper-right corner.
Peer mentors
Have you recently suffered a spinal cord injury and nour you’re finding things very new and difficult? Or perhaps you’ve been living with your condition for a while and want to move on and make some changes to your life?
Either way, you could benefit from having a peer mentor to inspire you and whow you various ways that you might move forward. A peer mentor is an experienced person who has been on the journey you are now facing.
Peer mentors are available across Sweden, and many speak English. The peer mentors recieve training and support from the patient organisations Personskadeförbundet RTP and rehab experts RG Aktiv Rehabilitering. The Gothenburg Competence Centre for Spinal Cord Injury participated in the development of the training and support system.
Find out more and register your interest in meeting a peer mentor at rtp.se/forebildscoacher/
Tip! Use Google Translate to translate the website.
Needs assessment project
Between 2021 and 2023, we carried out a major needs study to identify what matters most for people with spinal cord injuries to live a good life. The project included three parallel studies which focused on:
- Study A) unmet needs
- Study B) key research questions
- Study C) gaps in knowledge translation related to improving life with spinal cord injury (SCI).
The aim was to guide the development and improvement of education, services, products, healthcare, rehabilitation, and research — ensuring they address the right priorities to enhance quality of life for people with SCI.
The project was conducted in close collaboration with our four primary target groups:
- People with spinal cord injuries
- Their loved ones
- Personal care assistants supporting individuals with SCI
- Professionals in SCI care and rehabilitation
Study B was conducted using the priority setting partnership methodology, developed by James Lind Alliance (UK).
The results are published in four articles:
Report of insights from all three studies: The Swedish needs assessment project to enhance life for people living with spinal cord injury: synthesized evidence of needs to be met, researcher priorities, and knowledge gaps.
Webinar
This webinar aired on 3 June 2019 and features John Chernesky and Lisa Harvey, who discussed how we can form stronger bonds between consumers, clinicians and researchers
John Chernesky was at the time the Consumer Engagement Lead at the Rick Hansen Institute and the Vice-president of the North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium.
Lisa Harvey is a physiotherapist and was at the time professor at the University of Sydney School of Medicine.
Gunilla Åhrén hosted the webinar. She was our project leader at the time.
NASCIR – Nordic Advanced Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation
We’ve been partners in developing and giving NASCIR, an advanced level university course for experienced rehabilitation teams in the Nordic countries.
Contact our partners at the University of Gothenburg to find out more.