How are family relationships affected by a spinal cord injury? - Michelle Meade, PhD

A spinal cord injury causes pressure on a system. Sometimes that system is working well, and it can take it, and responds wonderfully. It provides one another with support, and more connection and focus that can bring a family together. In other ways though, when the relationships were built on a single factor—something like, “Oh but, we always went skiing together,” or “We had this in common.” That the stress of a spinal cord injury causes more problems and fractures. In some ways, it’s because there are different roles now because the individual with the injury has to deal with it, they can’t run away; other individuals though, can. And so it really depends on what was there before. Hopefully it is an opportunity to bring people together and to enrich relationships, but not always.