Question

Analyze problems experienced by parents with children who have long-term illnesses or disabilities. Consider the following situations and the impact of each on parent-child socio-emotional relationships and parenting:

The hospital is a far distance from where the family lives, and the parent/parents is/are unable to stay nearby to visit the child daily/weekly.

Finances (and familial relations such as marriage or co-custody) are strained by the cost of treatment and/or there are other children in the home needing care.

Ill children often feel abandoned and act-out, often rejecting the parent(s), who, in turn, may feel guilty and fail to discipline the children properly.

Answer 1

• It is estimated that world-wide up to 20 % of children suffer from debilitating mental illness.
• Mental disorders that pose a significant concern include learning disorders, hyperkinetic disorders (ADHD), depression, psychosis, pervasive development disorders, attachment disorders, anxiety disorders, conduct disorder, substance abuse and eating disorders.
• Living with such children can be very stressful for caregivers in the family. Therefore, determination of challenges of living with these children is important in the process of finding ways to help or support caregivers to provide proper care for their children.
• Psychological and emotional challenges included being stressed by caring tasks and having worries about the present and future life of their children. Parents had feelings of sadness due to the disturbing behaviour of the children. They also experienced some communication problems with their children due to their inability to talk.
• Social challenges were inadequate social services for their children, stigma, burden of caring task, lack of public awareness of mental illness, lack of social support, and problems with social life. The economic challenges were poverty, child care interfering with various income generating activities in the family, and extra expenses associated with the child’s illness.
• Families who care for a child with a disability are more likely to have non-reimbursed expenses for disability-related supports.
• Children with a disability are often born into low income families; however, it has also been reported that families who care for a children with a disability often find themselves sliding towards poverty.
• In order to meet their child's needs, families who care for a child with a disability are more likely to be single income families with lower quality jobs yielding lower incomes, to live in poor quality housing, and to live in poverty.
• Furthermore, these families are more likely to be single-parent families. Moreover, parents of a disabled child require more time off work and are more likely to work reduced hours and to decline overtime.
• Marital conflict, divorce or separation: most of the negative effects are caused by disruption of parenting. The parents' ability to cope with the changes may be reflected in the child's ability to cope.
• Difficult temperament of a child and a clash in parenting style also leads to problem in dealing with mental or physical disabilities.
• Family stress: working parents, job dissatisfaction, fatigue, stress and time, household chores also make parents sometimes not visit their children. Sending their children to hopsitals or institutions makes them feel that these care providers would take care of their child better than them.
• Just by providing financial assistance and not visiting them does not help. Parents feel that they have done their duty but time needs to be taken out to visit their children.
• A healthy parent child has a positive effect on children and helps them to get cured fast.