International Pediatric NursingBeing Invigorated in Parenthood: Parents' Experiences of Being Supported by Professionals When Having a Disabled Child
Section snippets
Subjects
Sixteen parents, 10 mothers and 6 fathers, within 10 families participated in the study. They cared for 11 children (between the ages of 2 and 16 years) at home. Two of these children were siblings. The children had different diagnoses, but none of them had a terminal illness. Nine of the children had both extensive bodily impairment and mental retardation, another child was mentally retarded, and another child has extensive bodily impairment. All families received care allowance from the
Naive Interpretation
One part of the text is about the experiences of being supported and how this support, in various ways, relieves daily care burdens, such as uncertainty, which is inherent in care of a disabled child, practical burdens, and irresolution about how to support the child's development. This relief is interpreted as giving a greater confidence as parent and hope for the child's future. A greater part of the text, however, is about the lack of support and its serious consequences to the family. This
Comprehensive Understanding
Results of the study reveal how influential and important it is for parents with a disabled child to experience support from professionals and how devastating it is not to experience this support. Our comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon of support is namely becoming invigorated in parenthood in the context of having a disabled child. Becoming invigorated in parenthood evolved out of experiences of gaining confidence as a parent and having a child who is seen as valuable. These
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by grants from The Order of St. John, The Foundation of Foreningssparbanken, Sjuharad, and University College of Borås, Sweden.
The authors thank the parents for participating in the study and Ms Patricia Shrimpton of Umeå University for revising the English.
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