Zarnekow Sponsorship Award 2021 goes to Andrea Bökel, InSCI Coordinator in Germany
As researcher at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Hannover Medical School Andrea Bökel is coordinator of the InSCI survey in Germany - the "GerSCI" study.
For her scientific work in the context of GerSCI Andrea Bökel received the Sponsorship Award of the Zarnekow Foundation, endowed with € 5,000. The award was granted during the 30th Rehabilitation Science Colloquium, which took place virtually from March 22-25, 2021.
Researching the life and care situation of people with spinal cord injury in Germany
Coordinated by Andrea Bökel, Germany was able to survey 1,479 people with spinal cord injury. For the first time, concrete information is now available about the life situation, health and barriers that persons with spinal cord injury experience in their everyday life in Germany. The team around Bökel identified serious problems especially in environmental barriers, medical care and labor market participation.
From research into practice
Based on these results four German associations in the field of SCI* initiated a policy brief in 2019 aiming to present essential problems and concrete demands to the German Federal Ministry of Health. The policy brief claimed for example an increase of specialized care institutions, a nationwide supply of assistive devices, and a reduction of barriers in public transportation and infrastructure. Currently, all four associations are working together to implement the requirements.
*Deutschsprachige Medizinische Gesellschaft für Paraplegie (DMGP), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Physikalische und Rehabilitative Medizin (DGPRM), Fördergemeinschaft der Querschnittgelähmten (FGQ), Deutsche Stiftung Querschnittlähmung (DSQ)