Guide for people with spasticity
Spasticity is a motor disorder that is associated with many diseases and disabilities
such as spinal cord injury multiple sclerosis or cerebral palsy.
What spasticity does is partially or totally impede movement
and generates involuntary movements called spasms.
It's as if you were a prisoner of your own body
because you can't control your movements or muscle tension.
So it's as if you and I were handcuffed together
and we were pulling with the same force in opposite directions.
Try to imagine that tension spasticity is that, but on a smaller scale.
With this guide, what we aim to do is orient people
to prevent lack of information from limiting their life.
There was nothing like this for people who have spasticity
so this provides a response for an unmet demand.
It also contains a whole generation of productive knowledge
which is useful for people who have this type of disability
and it was written in the university
by people who live with it.
I believe that here there has been a kind of self-management of knowledge
that's applied, not just academic, which is also very good and respectable
but is addressed to people who need support to have a life
that's not only decent but also participatory and inclusive.
I have infantile cerebral palsy
If I had not had access to the right information at the right moment
my life would be totally different from what it is today
I would have much less movement and much less independence.
When writing a guide for people who live with spasticity,
which gives them help, advice, guidelines to get on with their life
not only to study to get on with their life in general
I believe that it is a very positive instrument and we are delighted to collaborate with it
because we believe that it is what we have to do.