Help with a person's daily needs because injury or illness has reduced independent function.

"Attendant" means a human helper, paid or unpaid. "Care" means hands-on assistance or supervision that is reasonably necessary for the person's health, safety, hygiene, mobility, medication use, meals, or other basic activities of daily living. That can include bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring from bed to chair, preventing falls, cueing a person with a brain injury, or staying nearby when constant monitoring is medically required. It does not automatically include ordinary household chores done for everyone in the home. The key questions are necessity, medical connection, and the amount of time actually required.

For an injury claim, attendant care often becomes a major part of damages or insurance benefits because it converts lost function into a measurable service need. Records matter: physician orders, care logs, dates, tasks performed, and hours claimed. Disputes usually center on whether the care was medically necessary, whether it required skilled versus unskilled help, and whether the hours were reasonable.

In Michigan auto cases, attendant care can qualify as a personal protection insurance (PIP) allowable expense under the No-Fault Act, MCL 500.3107(1)(a). Under the 2019 no-fault amendments, care provided by a person domiciled in the injured person's household is generally capped at 56 hours per week unless the insurer agrees to more, under MCL 500.3157(10). In a lawsuit, inflated or undocumented attendant care claims can also affect credibility and the value of claimed damages.