What’s the role of a caregiver after a spinal cord injury? - Marguerite David, MSW

A caregiver would be someone who provides assistance to a person with a disability who has a functional need, meaning an activity of daily living—dressing, bathing, eating. They cannot accomplish that themselves, and they maybe can’t manage their bowel and bladder, so another person has to come in and help them do that. Now a caregiver can be, in the way I look at it, any type of person. It can be a family member, or not. It can be a person issued by the state under a state Medicaid program, or not. It can be your next door neighbor who wants to help you out at maybe no cost. It’s the care you need that comes from someone. So it can be called an attendant, it can be called a personal care assistant. Often I think people think “caregiver” means the family member is going to do it for free, and that isn’t necessarily the way it has to be. The person who assists with your care can be any range of people. And for a lot of reasons family members may opt out of doing that care, especially married couples in terms of their marital relationship that is not the thing for them. In the case of mothers, they’re probably going to be more likely to jump on caregiving without stopping and thinking they can still be mom if somebody else does those bodily-function helps.