ESCIF Congress 2018 Prague

This years ESCIF Congress took place between the 8th and 11th of August in the beautiful city of Prague. There were over 50 participants from 20 European countries. I was privileged to be asked to represent Spinal Injuries Scotland at this event.

The thirteenth annual ESCIF Congress was organised in cooperation with Czech Paraplegic Association - CZEPA. The theme was: 'Peer support – A unique resource’.

My dad and I flew out to Prague the day before the Congress from Edinburgh with Ryanair. I pre-booked the car park which was nicely located right outside Arrivals. I made my way to the Disabled Assistance Desk who took my details and told me they would see me at the gate. The Ryanair stewards insisted that I sit at window seat but couldn’t lift me over. Once we arrived in Prague I had to wait for an hour before I was assisted from the plane. ESCIF had arranged for a driver to meet us and take us to the Clarion Congress Hotel where we were staying, also the venue for the congress, in an accessible minibus with plenty of room inside.

As we had arrived a day early we had lots of time to relax after the journey. We checked in to the hotel and went to see if the room was truly accessible. It was. No wheel-in shower, but a tracking hoist to get you into the bath. In my experience not all accessible rooms are like this. However, there was no manual hoist to get me into bed! I contacted reception to see if it had arrived. One wasn’t ordered. I spoke to SIS who confirmed that they had ordered one, but there had been a misunderstanding. There was a hoist but in bathroom, but the bath didn’t look comfy enough to sleep in! I spoke to Tomas at ESCIF who managed to organise one for me the next day. In the meantime hotel security had to help me get in and out of bed. I would recommend this hotel to anyone travelling to Prague as the rooms are nice and spacious, food was excellent and the staff are very helpful and friendly.

The next day the congress didn’t begin until 2pm, so we decided to go into Prague. I found the wheelchair access excellent from our hotel to the centre of Prague. Not all metro stations are wheelchair accessible but they are well signposted. The city centre is very flat but the cobbled streets make pushing in a wheelchair quite difficult. There’s plenty to see and do and it is a beautiful city.

The Congress began on Wednesday afternoon at 2pm. The ESCIF committee welcomed everyone and there were several speeches from the board. As there wasn’t much time left, there was only one presentation from one organisation.

This was by Lucy Robinson representing Stoke Mandeville Spinal Injuries Unit. Lucy spoke about how their Peer Support workers do Patient Education Service:

Their Patient Education Service has three staff members, all peers with Living experience. This was very interesting as patient education in Scotland is run by nurses at the SIU with Peer Support Volunteer giving talks at some of these sessions.

The day finished around 6.30pm, in time for everyone to get ready to meet up for dinner at 8pm. The food was buffet style with lots of choices. I got the opportunity to try foods I had never heard of, such as pike curry, I think I will give it a miss in future!

On Thursday morning there were speeches from three different countries; Holland, Croatia, and Germany. There were lots of similarities between these countries and how they do their Peer Support. All SIU had two paid Peer Support workers and all had at least 2 years living with a SCI before becoming a PS Volunteer.

In the afternoon there were another three presentations from Switzerland, Ukraine and another from the Netherlands. This was from Christel van Leeuwen, a researcher in Peer Supporter Role in Adaption.

The presentation from Ukraine showed us how far they have to go. An OT and Physio presented and explained that the Spinal Injuries Unit is only 2 years old and they don’t have a lot of medical supplies or wheelchairs at the moment. After speaking to them I’m looking at having a container sent out with old wheelchairs, cushions, medical supplies in the New Year. Watch this space!

On Thursday night we had a formal dinner which was lovely. Plenty of local wine if you wanted it, and local musicians. I tasted a couple of the wines, but they were not to my liking!

The Congress finished on Friday at lunchtime. It started off on a sad note as we were told that the former President of ESCIF, Mrs Jane Horsewell, had passed away. It was with heavy hearts that the news of Jane´s death reached us. All delegates joined in a silent moment to pay their respect to Jane, ESCIF´s highly respected leader for many years. The day before, during the Annual Assembly the delegates had bestowed Jane the first Honorary Membership within ESCIF.

There were three further speeches by Greece, Finland and England. As with all other countries there were similarities.

The England presentation was from Charlotte Fraser Back-Up Trusts Head of Peer Mentoring. They now have 80 trained SCI mentors who complete a two day training course. They have three training days per year with roughly 10-12 mentors trained each time. They also run separate courses for Incomplete SCI and Walkers.

The day was finished by a speech from Vice President Gunilla Ahren from Sweden. Gunilla was talking about the Ambassador Program where she would like everyone to form closer contacts amongst member countries. More info and presentations are available on www.escifcongress.org.

Gunilla then invited everyone to her home city Gothenburg, Sweden for next years Congress: Empowerment... Knowledge is Power ESCIF Congress. Gothenburg, 27-29 MAY 2019.

After lunch some left for home and about 30 of us went on a sightseeing boat trip. This was a great way to see some of the city and an excellent way to spend the afternoon.

I had an amazing 5 days representing SIS and meeting other SCI people from different countries. It was certainly an eye opener to find out that we still have a long way to catch up with some countries when it comes to Peer Support, but with the right support we can strive to make sure those in the Spinal Unit in Glasgow received the best Peer Support we can offer.

BY KEVIN MACKIN