A weekly support group for wheelchair users creates a space for people to connect about their experiences navigating the world with mobility issues.
The sessions are held at Independence First, a Milwaukee nonprofit that supports people with disabilities.
The support group was only supposed to last for four weeks. That was about seven months ago.
The group is still meeting and still growing. People can come in person, or join virtually.
Most of the time, folks come to the group by way of its facilitator, Michael Wolfe, who is a transition coordinator at the organization.
In that role, he goes into hospitals to assist people with mobility issues to secure housing.
"Instead of them going into like a assisted living, a group home, or some type of institution, we try to enable them to either find their own place, which is ideal, go back to the place they were at prior to injury by either offering modifications or going to do an assessment for modifications, providing the right equipment or tools to make it accessible for them to get in or out," Wolfe says.
The spinal cord injury support group meets every Tuesday night, Wolfe says. The group is co-ed and has members of all ages.
It’s very informal. There is no set agenda. Wolfe says you just come in and let organic conversation flourish. He says people find things they have in common and learn new solutions to problems they’ve probably never considered.
And they crack a few jokes with each other too.
"For example, we always talk about things that are like kind of like taboo — which would be intimacy, bowel and bladder issues, chronic pain. We all struggle through those things but it's kind of hard to talk about because you don't want to feel vulnerable," Wolfe says.
Wolfe says adding some humor to those stories can help remove any embarrassment one might feel.
Wolfe is in a wheelchair himself, from a gunshot wound he suffered in 2012.
But when the laughs stop, the group gets serious about addressing mental health.
"'Cause you know, a life changing injury can have devastating effects on a person. So, we try to focus on empowering people and giving them their confidence back," he says.
Wolfe says it’s important for members to see each other living “normal lives,” and to pass on how they do so, even without the use of a significant part of their bodies.
Some group members have conditions like spinal bifida or cerebral palsy. Others are amputees or survivors of gunshot wounds.
"I’m a paraplegic; can’t feel from the waist on down," says 29-year-old Otis Young, a member of the group. "I got shot in 2015. When I was newly injured, I didn't have any, like, support — especially someone that was African American like me. I was only 20 years old when I got shot so I didn't have like no resources. I didn't know where to start what to do. But when I met them, they really helped me through it. They gave me great resources, gave me advice on how to cope. Showed me that it is more to life than just being in a wheelchair."
Another survivor, 38-year-old Yeng Her, agrees that the group has helped with navigating her new normal.
"I've been injured in 2023 of April. It was a stray bullet," says Her. "Tragic for me, but it is what it is. There's a lot of that we can learn from each other, it just depends on what we take in, but there's a lot of resource here you know maybe something that I've gone through that somebody already went through and they'll be able to give you more words on it, and you know guide you to the right path of how to deal with it."
Shawn Smith, 33, is a double amputee due to bone infections connected to diabetes.
"Honestly, I didn’t wanna come at first only because, like, I was still in like a depressing state," Smith says. "Life still had to go on. I wanted to get out the house and just be around people that weren't always negative all the time. Be around, you know, people I can just be myself with."
Facilitator Mike Wolfe says the group also discusses accountability — talking about what they can control versus focusing on the negative. He says that builds the strength of the group, individuals, and the community.
And he hopes people pass what they learn to the next generation.
"Because you would be amazed at how many people end up going from hospital to home without seeing another person in a wheelchair and I think that's devastating," Wolfe says.
Wolfe says wheelchair users seeing another person in a wheelchair living a successful life after injury does wonders for their confidence in the future.
