A Feasibility Trial of an Enhanced Coping-oriented Supportive Programme for Community-dwelling People With Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a neurological disorder that leads to "partial or complete loss of people's motor and/ or sensory function below the level of the injury". This study is a single-group feasibility trial with pre- and post-assessment. The total sample size is 12. This is a feasibility trial of an Enhanced Coping-oriented Supportive Programme (E-COSP) for Community-Dwelling People with Spinal Cord Injury. Twelve SCI participants will be recruited from the Hong Kong Direction Association for the Handicapped. The intervention group will receive eight weekly online group sessions (6-8 participants per group) with one hour for each session using Zoom videoconferencing software. A detailed intervention manual will be used to guide all intervention delivery. The intervention will be led by a registered rehabilitation nurse (who will be employed as a part-time RA2) who has more than three years of work experience in caring for people with SCI. The nurse who delivers the intervention will receive extensive training from the PI and CI, who are experts in coping interventions and relevant psychosocial intervention skills. The intervention providers will also receive training in group dynamics and group intervention skills, and be supervised by the research team and a psychologist during the whole period of the study. Selected audio-taped intervention sessions will be rated by the PI and CI on the fidelity of the intervention delivery. Primary outcome will be the feasibility and acceptability: The feasibility will be assessed by recruitment rate, retention rate, and drop-out rate; and the acceptability will be assessed by adherence rate and participants' satisfaction. And the secondary outcomes will be mental health, Quality of Life, participation in meaningful activities, coping strategies, and self-efficacy.