The objective of the program the First Contact is sharing experience and information between socially active people with limited mobility and those who have recently experienced a spinal cord trauma and currently find themselves in a critical period. On an equal-to-equal basis, people with experience provide information about current rehabilitation programs, social projects and exemptions, explain how to avoid post-trauma aggravations that might be caused by the spinal cord damage, arrange consultations and psychological support.
The idea of the program arose a few years ago when the head of the sport club Odessa-Basket Oleg Prokhorov attended a seminar related to this topic. The First Contact program is part of a system of active rehabilitation for people with limited physical abilities, which has been working in many countries of Western Europe and North America already for several decades. For Ukraine such a program run at the level of the city government is unique, with Odessa being the first city where realization of such social projects became possible.
The program is run with the help of the reference boards placed at the neurosurgical hospital departments of our city, where corresponding information and contact phones numbers of the contactees are displayed. The contactees – members of the sports club Odessa-Basket – are ready to arrive any moment to provide needed information and psychological support.
Usually, a person who has received a serious spinal injury, along with people surrounding him, psychologically go through a severe period. After the threat to his life has passed and doctors send him home, he is left in a depressed condition, one on one with his troubles. He lacks information about existing rehabilitation centers and programs, about actions needed to avoid associated diseases and places where technical means, such as wheelchairs and crutches, can be received. The program First Contact aims at providing this information and assisting a person from a depressed state.
Participants of the program are socially active people who, despite having a need in a wheelchair, take part in the sports competitions, organize different kinds of events, expeditions, etc., thus proving by their own vivid example that a person in a wheelchair is not limited in his life. The main goal of the program is to share the experience of expanding the abilities of people with special needs and return those who have lived through a spinal cord injury into normal social and business life of our city.
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