The master’s thesis presents a form of assistance that is currently not as recognised as the others are in Slovenia. This form is provided by the other users and is called peer counselling. It is about the mutual support of people with similar life experiences and is different from the ordinary support that is given to users, usually by different professionals. Although the professionals really do have a lot of knowledge, it is sometimes hard for the individual to fully trust a person, who has no actual experience with handicap, as the other users do. In this thesis the focus is on providing peer counselling to people, facing a long-term physical disability. Therefore, I presented different topics in the theoretical part of the thesis. For example, what is the economic situation of people with disability and how much money in health care is intended for them, what is like to lose a previously formed and valued identity, what are the most effective sources of emotional support, what is peer counselling and why do people sometimes have a hard time trusting professionals. Also, I presented some of the good practices of peer counselling from foreign countries and outlined what people with physical disability think about the usefulness of peer counselling method.
In my qualitative research, I have included people who had experienced a traffic accident or other accident and because of that suffered a severe spinal cord injury. Each interviewee had experienced some kind of informal form of peer counselling along their rehabilitation and later maybe even themselves helped others that injured their spine. I carried out a number of detailed interviews and I interviewed an additional person who himself received peer counselling during his rehabilitation in Switzerland. Besides the interviews, I carried out a focus group, with which I explored the additional financial costs that are associated with living with a long-term disability. I also wanted to explore how these additional costs affect the economic situation of a person.
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