Family support and resources of families of children with intellectual disability and autism

Abstract

Introduction: Families with a child with intellectual developmental disabilities face fear, inappropriate information, ignorance, shame and exclusion. These circumstances lead to social exclusion of these families which makes their integration in the community even more difficult. The underlying reasons for bad status of families of children with intellectual developmental disabilities are deeply rooted in the social, economic, cultural and psychological foundations in all cultures. These families are in constant social isolation, and poverty and social exclusion are among the most relative features of the life of these families. Many of them live in an environment of discrimination, prejudices, ignorance, misinformation and unsatisfied basic needs. Very often these families are families with low incomes, and the reasons for poverty and social exclusion are the low employment rate, the unavailability of the public services and institutions, the lack of support they should receive by the community, as well as the insufficient development of the support services for these families by the state. Method: This research has been conducted on a sample of total 122 respondents, 60 parents of children with typical development and 62 parents of children with intellectual disability and autism. With the use of a Family Support Scale and a Family Resources Scale, the resources at the disposal of these families, the support they receive from other family members and the community, as well as their needs, have been reviewed. The data collected have been processed with the statistical program SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Results and Conclusion: The results lead to a conclusion that families of children with disabilities still do not have enough resources in the community and the institutions of the system do not offer them sufficient support in order for them to be able to complete their obligations without any obstacles, and at the same time allowing a better quality of life for all family members.