Supportive Work with Parents of Disabled Children

Abstract

To have a chronically ill or disabled child will always be a critical family occurrence and present a serious challenge to the family's coping ability. Parents often report that they were totally unprepared for the shock of producing a disabled child. In the initial stage of the crisis they are in great need of adequate supportive action, both from the professional health personnel and from the network of family and friends. It is important that the parents do not start to feel that they are abandoned in such an overwhelming new situation. They need both practical help and emotional support in order to accept the sad fact and to readjust to the unexpected change in family life. This is a process which necessarily takes time. As a mother of a child with Down's syndrome once put it: 'Before I could accept my little baby, I had to finish mourning the child I didn't get the creation of my mind during pregnancy'.