Coming Home After an Injury
What will it look like when you finally get to go home after months in the hospital recovering. This is an incredibly stressful time and there are things you need to have ready before you can return home. You will have a team of people helping at the rehabilitation center but now, you are on your own; financially, physically, and emotionally.
What will it cost?
The first, and biggest problem you face after an injury, is how you will get into your home, move, and live within the space. Overwhelming is a completely inadequate way to describe the to do list of things to prepare for your return. Then it is time to think about how you are going to pay for all the renovations, and accommodations, to create accessible housing. Chances are your family income is affected by your accident so how do you make this happen? What if you rent? Nothing is going to be the same, or easy.
Costs you may incur for basic accessible housing:
- Exterior updates $10K – $30K
- Bathroom $25K- $50K
- Kitchen $20K – $100K
You still have rehabilitation, medications, wheelchair, medical equipment, and home care. How do you make it? Disability payments only go so far?
There currently is a long wait list in BC for accessible homes. A CBC article reports that approximately 4000 people living with disabilities are waiting for housing.
How We Help
This is where the team at Wishart Brain & Spine Law may be able to help you. You buy insurance in good faith but often getting access to the resources, or insurance funds, can be difficult with lengthy delays. Wishart Brain & Spine Law is here to take your burden of trying to access funding, fight for reimbursement from insurance companies, and any other obstacle in your way, so you and your family can have a life outside of injury.
What Recovery Needs
Robyn Wishart and Michelle Sagert support their client’s recovery by scheduling appointments for assessments, arranging travel accommodations, getting medical records transferred between clinics, and making sure you have access to the best doctors possible. Recovery is more than physical so we also help you find the best adaptive tools to help make life a little bit easier. Financial support includes finding grants, filling out insurance forms and sending them in on your behalf, providing necessary equipment in advance of receiving settlement funds, and connecting you with the people who can help you get access to what you need when you need it. More importantly, we can help connect you with community support to help you and your family adjust. Having people that understand what you are going through is critical to a positive outlook. It supplies support, resources, and encouragement necessary to move forward.
Recovery Support
You will have a list of supports provided by your hospital social worker but here are our favorites
WAGS of SCI – Social support and people with lived experience to help you find your way.
Individualized Funding Resource Centre – Assistance finding funding or setting up CSIL
BC Disability Funding – Grants and other funding available to help with costs
The Right Fit – Matches wheelchair users to the right accessible housing
BC Rebate for Accessible Home Adaptations (BC RAHA) – Grants to help with the cost of renovation.
Spinal Cord Injury BC Market Place – Wheelchair accessible housing, Swap and Shop, Equipment, Wheelchairs, Vehicles for sale.
BC Housing – Online application link for housing registry
Contact Us
If you would like to speak with one of the lawyers at Wishart Brain & Spine Law to see how they may be able to help, please call or email us. We offer a free consultation to help you find the best path forward.
