My DW has been disabled 15 years and had surgery for spinal stenosis. Her leg kept buckling under her and she fell down the stairs a couple of times.
Being disabled is something no one wants to go through, but the family's just got to be 100% supportive if that's the situation.
My wife made good money running hospital laboratories, and maintaining our lifestyle was difficult without her income. Approval to get Social Security Disability varies from state to state, but they will often try to "starve you out" by disapproval of your disability claim. We had to appeal rejection twice, get an attorney and wait for a hearing--total time just under 2 years.
Many people don't have the paperwork trail and real disability that prevents them from working at some kind of job. Those that are 30 years of age are going to find getting disability much, much harder than someone 50 years of age.
But the family must fully support someone when they're forced into such a situation. Our daughter in law had a bad car wreck and was the point of amputation of a leg last month. She cannot even cook dinner, and Social Security's turned her down 2x. And we see those with bad backs out cutting trees in their yard that are on Social Security. Some things are just not right.