Practical workshops exploring the latest in spinal cord injury care, research, and lived experience. Designed for clinicians, researchers, and community members alike, each session offers valuable insights and real-world applications.
Wednesday Morning Workshops
Date & Time: Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Speakers: Tania Goossen – Back2Work Organisation: Spinal Life Australia, Belinda McLeod – Back2Work Organisation: Spinal Life Australia, Skye Palethorpe – In Voc representative Organisation: Royal Rehab, Dr Boris Fedoric Organisation: WorkGain, Noretta Boland Organisation: New Zealand Spinal Trust
This interactive session explores the pivotal role clinicians play in supporting people with SCI/D to return to work. It includes practical strategies for embedding vocational identity into therapy, an innovation showcase of assistive technologies, and lived experience reflections. Participants will gain tools and insights to challenge assumptions around disability, explore non-traditional roles post-injury, and promote inclusion and diversity in the workplace.
Date & Time: Wednesday 19 November 2025, 9.30 AM -11.30 AM
Speakers: Dr Chau Do, Donna Harre, Dr Suzy Stoikov, and Emily Allan (Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service)
This workshop will introduce attendees to the QuickStart model—an innovative, data-driven approach to spinal cord injury care in Queensland. The session will explore the development and core components of the QuickStart model, demonstrating how it uses clinical informatics and business intelligence tools to enhance decision-making, optimise resources, and improve patient outcomes. Participants will learn from the Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service team’s real-world experience in service delivery and evaluation, including key lessons learned and future directions for expanding impact. A panel Q&A and key message wrap-up will provide practical takeaways for applying similar innovations in other settings.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Speaker: Candice Care-Unger, Mia Harris, Nicola Guy and Bridie Allan.
Sexuality has long been identified as a high priority for people living with Spinal Cord Injury, clinicians agree this is an important aspect of rehabilitation with positive attitudes and beliefs about the need for sexual rehabilitation, yet many members of the MDT report feeling ill prepared to address these concerns in meaningful ways. This interactive workshop is designed for skill acquisition so that all members of the treating team are clear about their opportunities for addressing sexuality in rehabilitation and have a wide range of non-pharmacology interventions for a variety of concerns following spinal cord injury. Using the PLISSIT model we will explore ways to address sexual rehabilitation in inpatient, outpatient and community settings. The workshop will include small group activities, videos, and opportunities to bring theory to practice, so that you can implement your knowledge and imbed your skills straight away.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Speakers: Dr Evgeniya Zakharova-Luneva, Ms Rachel Jones, Mr Darren Meyers, Dr Samuel Yang, Adj Prof Thomas Lloyd, Dr Burcu Isler, Ms Jo-Anne Kemp, Dr Amy Nevin, Ms Emilie Gollan, Ms Soo Oh, Ms Medhan Nolan and Dr Jenna Scambler.
This interactive workshop will delve into the complexities of managing pressure injuries in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI), with a focus on collaborative, multidisciplinary care.
The first part of the session will provide an evidence-based update on current approaches to managing complex pressure injuries in SCI, including those that require definitive surgical intervention.
The second part will feature two complex case discussions, highlighting the unique challenges and key considerations faced by the multidisciplinary team when planning and delivering care for these patients. Participants will be encouraged to share perspectives and problem-solve together, reflecting the collaborative nature of real-world practice.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Speakers: Dr Nicholas Aitcheson (Chair), Prof Michel Coppieters, Rebecca Madden, Timothy Bagshaw, Michael Deen, and Dr Niamh Jensen
This 3-hour workshop offers an interdisciplinary, whole-person approach to managing persistent pain in individuals with SCI. Covering current models of pain, it incorporates interactive case studies, small group activities, and therapeutic strategies from physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and psychology. Participants will gain practical tools rooted in real-world clinical experience and research to help improve quality of life for people experiencing chronic SCI-related pain.
Date & Time: Wednesday, 19 November 2025, 12:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Facilitators: Professor Tim Geraghty, Professor Louise Gustafsson, Dr Kelsey Chapman, Dr Delena Amsters, Dr Emily Bray and Hannah Simmonds (The Hopkins Centre and Queensland Spinal Cord Injuries Service).
Inclusive and collaborative research that meaningfully involves people with spinal cord injury (SCI) or other disability is recognised as having the potential to optimise the treatment, rehabilitation, and support services required to enhance the lived experience of people with disability. Benefits of inclusive research include improved relevance of research aims and outcomes; greater scope to design resultant interventions and services to address individuals’ preferences and needs; and research evidence that can be readily translated into practice. Despite these widely recognised benefits, there are pervasive barriers to realising inclusive research in practice. Co-design has become a term of choice, with concerns often raised regarding how well the work conducted represents the true participatory nature of co-design activities.
The aim of this workshop is for participants (people with SCI, academic researchers and health professionals) to learn about best practice co-design, establish a shared understanding of the broadly accepted principles underpinning authentic, dignified co-design, and harness this shared understanding to collaboratively develop a practical resource (the exact nature of this resource will be determined by workshop participants as part of the workshop process) which will advance practice in co-design in disability and rehabilitation research.