"NEW BRITAIN, Conn. -- A new support center opening this weekend will help people with spinal cord injuries network with others like them and learn to navigate through life post-injury.

The Connecticut Chapter of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association and the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain planned to open the Spinal Cord Injury Resource Center in a house on the hospital grounds Saturday.

The center, one of only a few in the nation, will be staffed by volunteers from the association.

The center will also receive support from the hospital, which has one of two certified spinal cord injury programs in the state. The other is at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, where the state chapter of NSCIA has its headquarters.

The center will be stocked with literature - and wired with Internet-ready computers - so people with spinal cord injuries can get information on everything from home renovations to travel spots with good handicap access.

Among those looking forward to the new center is 25-year-old Mark Peluso, who severed his spinal cord in a dirt bike accident five years ago and is in a wheelchair.

"Putting it all in one place makes it easier," the Rocky Hill man said.

The people working at the center will be able to share their own experiences, said Bill Mancini of West Hartford, who is president of the state NSCIA chapter.

"It's going to be staffed by volunteers who have spinal cord injuries," said Mancini, who became a paraplegic a decade ago when he suffered a rare spinal aneurysm. "It's people with disabilities communicating with other people with disabilities."

The national association estimates that there are between 250,000 and 400,000 spinal cord injury patients in the United States. The Connecticut chapter of the association has about 350 members.

Those with the most severe cord injuries often cannot breathe without help from a mechanical respirator. All must deal with various medical issues, from skin breakdown caused by extended sitting to bladder and bowel control.

Those with spinal cord injuries can also face access barriers, discrimination and mental health problems.

Mancini said it's important for newly injured patients to get out of their homes and enter the community.

The new center will give some patients a destination, and Mancini said just getting there will be helpful for them.

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