Promoting independence in adolescent paraplegics: a 2-week "camping" experience.
In the summer of 1982, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital (Dallas, TX, U.S.A.) sponsored a camp for paraplegic adolescents. Six patients, three boys and three girls 14-17 years of age, participated in a 2-week program that was designed to improve their self-esteem, independence, and eventual employability. In their pre- and postcamp psychological evaluations, the campers demonstrated improvement in social skills and self-concept testing as compared with the scores of a matched control group, although this improvement did not reach statistical significance. We believe the camp was immensely successful, an opinion that was shared by both the campers and their parents.
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000293:Adolescent; D002165:Camping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012649:Self Concept; D012917:Social Adjustment; D016136:Spina Bifida Occulta / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013781:Texas