What factors determine where a spinal cord injury patient goes after leaving the hospital?

You certainly start with, “Who were you before, and where did you live before and what was your social support before?” If you want to go back to that system of your family and support, and that’s what you want, then the goal would be to go back with that family and live out your life. For some people when you have a spinal cord injury, it’s an opportunity to make a change from potential abusive spouses or parents. In that case, it may be the opportunity to say that, “I don’t want to go back to where I was, I’d like to move into a new kind of environment,” so that would be another choice. Then the other part would be, what are your physical care needs? Can the place and people you’ve chosen actually support the identified physical care needs that you have? Because it has to be a safe plan where you will not have medical complications and recurring safety issues—like no way to escape the house in terms of fire or an accident prone situation where the floor boards are broken and you’re going to trip on them—it has to be a safe place. And if you don’t have a quote, “home place,” then there are a whole range of assisted living and skilled facilities that you can choose from that have that safety built-in for you.

A lot of that is going to depend on the family support they have, that’s probably the number one. If they don’t have family support, chances are that they might not return home. But if their injury level is low enough that they can be independent on their own, then obviously they may return home. But, if you have someone that has a high-injury level and their family is not willing to provide that support, then they’re not going to go home.