What is the Community Peer Support Service?

SIA's Community Peer Support service provides practical advice and support for those being treated in District General Hospitals or Neurological/Rehab Centres and who have sustained damage to the spinal cord either through trauma or illness.  The Service also provides support for family members and friends by allowing them to talk through the impact of such an injury with someone who understands and can signpost them to sources of information.

About the Community Peer Support Team

Our Community Peer Support Team currently operates in three areas:

• South of the country
• North West
• Greater London area

Meet the Team

Plans are in hand to extend the service, as soon as funding is available, to the North East of England and to Wales.

Our Community Peer Support Officers, Peter Hutchings, Jamie Rhind and Simon Brierley, are themselves spinal cord injured.  Having experienced living with spinal cord injury for some years, the team are ideally placed to support others who are either new to the world of spinal cord injury, or have been readmitted to hospital for further rehab or medical intervention.

After meeting one of our Community Peer Support Officers, one newly injured person who was being treated in a non-specialist hospital, said:

'I felt so alone but meeting him and learning about SIA helped me to realise that there was a future.  It has been a great support to both me and my family.  Now I feel more confident that I'll be able to pick up the pieces and rebuild my life'.

How to access the Community Peer Support Service

If you are spinal cord injured, are not being treated at a Spinal Injuries Centre and think you would benefit from talking to someone who understands your situation

The team are also happy to meet with healthcare professionals and other stakeholders involved in the treatment and care of spinal cord injured people to offer training or talk about living with injury and the range of services offered by SIA and support offered.

With funding from the Big Lottery Fund, SIA is delighted to announce the expansion of the service to Wales. We are currently recruiting for this post. For more information see the vacancies page.