What can family members do to encourage a good adjustment to life in a wheelchair after spinal cord injury? - Marguerite David, MSW

Let them fall down and pick themselves back up. Do not rescue them from life. It’s so hard when you love someone to not rescue them. Never make your loved one a captive of care, they’re going have to run that the road alone, and they learn to problem-solve by picking themselves back up. And you can’t make the road all smooth for them. But you have to remember that the learning comes from the right to fail. They didn’t lose that right when they had a spinal cord injury. We all learn from that and that’s how we get through life. Somehow for folks with disabilities we want to rescue them from the pain. And the pain is what gives them the coping skills to get on with life.