About the Site

The information on this website can be used in many different ways, depending on your interest. Here are just a few examples of how you might use it:

• Learn something new: There are 46 topics covered on this website, from "Access to Health Care" to "When the Unexpected Happens." The topics are grouped into seven sections:
  • About Pressure Ulcers
  • Doctors and Health Care
  • Caring For the Body
  • Coping With Life
  • Living Well
  • Home, Work and Environment
  • Emotions and Feelings
  There are also two different articles covering each topic: a simpler, introductory article, which is broken into bite-sized chunks; and a more detailed, in-depth article, with more medical language. Choose whichever you prefer. If you're reading the simpler article and wish to go into more depth, click on the 'Read in more detail about this subject' link that's shown on the left hand side of the screen. If you'd like to go back, click on the 'Read the basics about this subject' link. You can read through any of the titles that interest you to learn about areas you would like to know more about. Pick any title. Go in any order. Read some today, and more another day. It's up to you! Links on this site to articles look like this.
• Find out what someone else did: Perhaps you'd prefer to read about the 20 people with spinal cord injuries who helped with the project. If you're reading an article which refers to one of the participants, you can also follow a link to a page all about them, and then find out which other articles are relevant to their story. Seeing how someone else experienced a particular topic, and what happened to them, might be helpful to you. Links on this site to information about the project participants look like this.
• Prepare questions for your doctor or therapist: Reading through this website might bring up areas that you have not yet talked about with your doctor or other health care professional. Use the website to make a list of questions to ask your doctor. Together, you can come up with the best way to take care of your health.
• Map a strategy: Are you interested in changing something about your daily activities? This website can help you learn about how other people with spinal cord injuries have been successful in taking care of their health, and also about some of the ways that they have run into trouble. Take the information you read here to your doctor or therapist and, together, map a new strategy for doing your daily activities or taking action to prevent pressure ulcers.
• Share information: Is there someone in your life who would like to get more information about living with spinal cord injuries, or about preventing pressure ulcers? Let them know about this website. Tell them what you learned from reading it.
• Become the teacher: Once you have educated yourself, why not share what you have learned with your partner, friends and family, or your co-workers? They may not know very much about spinal cord injury, or might have thought it would be uncomfortable or rude to ask questions. Research has shown that even one hour-long meeting or talk to an individual or a group about disabilities can be enough to increase their knowledge and improve their attitudes toward people with disabilities. Use the facts on this website to tell other people about pressure ulcers and other health issues.
• Get more information from the Internet: You will find that each article on this website ends with a list of related website addresses. If you like to use the Internet, these addresses can help you to find reliable and interesting websites, some of which are in Spanish. Links on this site to other websites look like this.
• Your way: Whatever way you choose to use this guide will work just fine. It is a guide that is ready to be used by many different people in many different ways. Your own way is the best way!