Aspire’s Independent Living Service was born from conversations with patients who wanted someone they could turn to when they had questions about life outside of hospital. Whilst peer support was available in many Spinal Injury Centres, we were being told that what was missing was support from people who had broad insight into the full range of topics that were coming up. Aspire’s response was our Independent Living team.

We launched the service in 2006, initially piloting it in two Centres to test our fledging service and ensure it met the need that existed. The response from patients and staff was encouraging, and more Centres followed. By 2015, when our first Middlesbrough Advisor started, Advisors were in place in every Spinal Injury Centre in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Our Independent Living Advisors have regular training from other charities, legal practitioners, clinical teams and our own experts who work in the other Aspire services. They’re also well used to researching topics, so when a new question comes up they’ll go looking for an answer, sharing that with the rest of the team so they’re all better informed if they get a similar question down the line. This extensive knowledge is combined with lived experience of spinal injury, allowing our Advisors to put a real-world context into the conversations they are having.

In 2009, we were approached by a clinical psychologist who wanted a resource they could use with their patients, something that would impart information in a positive, aspirational way. We couldn’t make Advisors available 24 hours a day, and so the first Aspire Book was conceived. The book – It’s My Life – features first-person narratives, covering a range of issues and packaged in a coffee-book style to encourage people to dip into it rather than read cover to cover. The book was made available to every new patient, as well as anyone else with a spinal cord injury who wanted one. That was followed by a second book in 2013 to cover more issues, and a third in 2017 that featured stories from the perspective of family and friends. The books have been hugely successful and are used to this day.

The Aspire books

Help with independent living