A Crowning Effort

Kristen McCosh is energetic, talented and well-accomplished. McCosh is a novelist — she is writing a series of books featuring women with disabilities as heroines — and she a consultant with the Early Intervention Program for newly injured spinal cord injury patients at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston.

She is also editor-in-chief of Solutions, an e-magazine, and is working toward receiving her master's degree in public health at Boston University. But her primary focus is advocating for those with disabilities.

McCosh, who serves as Ms. Wheelchair America 2008, “talks the talk” through her MWA platforms, which include leading by example, the importance of peer mentoring, physical fitness for people with disabilities, employment opportunities for people with disabilities — and support for home care services.

Ms. Wheelchair America, which was founded in 1972, provides an opportunity for women who use wheelchairs to educate and advocate for the more than 52 million Americans living with disabilities. Currently, there are 24 states that have held or will hold pageants for the 2009 title. Women in states without pageants who want to participate can enter as independent delegates.

McCosh, who at age 15 had a diving accident in which she sustained a C6 spinal cord injury, is passionate about the independence that can be attained through mobility equipment, employment opportunities and community involvement for those with disabilities.

She believes access to home medical and mobility equipment is essential for people with disabilities and is striving to ensure it is enhanced — not decreased.

“My primary legislative concern is to increase funding to keep people at home,” she says. “How disheartening can it be to be 20 years old and sitting in a nursing home because you can't get a wheelchair?”

Her relationship with her mobility provider is a special one, she says. That's why competitive bidding concerns her: It takes the control out of the patient's hands.

“When considering all of the cutbacks and the concerns of the HME industry, I think about my experience. I have had the same home care provider since my injury 25 years ago. The company has changed hands a few times, but I have the same technician who works on my wheelchair and the same person who fits me for my wheelchair. It is a real provider relationship. It's not like picking out a car,” she says.

The bond created between providers and patients is strong.