What can families do to help patients cope with a spinal cord injury? - Toby Huston, PhD

Look for ways to treat them as the person they were before the injury and as the person they still are. Sometimes I think parents in particular can decide that what they need to do with kids who are newly injured or a teenager who still is their child, that they give them more leeway, they don’t hold them accountable, they baby them in a way that they wouldn’t have done before, and I think that makes for a more complicated picture. I think lots of times I encourage family members to treat the person in the way they would’ve treated them before. In a loving way but not giving them latitude in places they wouldn’t have before, and not being harsher than they would’ve been before. It’s hard to do sometimes but it’s trying to look for the familiar and engage at that level.