Suchergebnisse

This book reviews the intervention literature on practices for supporting families of children with intellectual disabilities or autism and evaluates their status as evidence-based. It meta-analyses group comparison design studies and reports on single subject design studies of major psycho-social programs to support families.

This report uses meta-analytic methods to reexamine a body of research literature on comparative levels of divorce and marital satisfaction/discord in parents of children with and without developmental disabilities in light of new assumptions about variability in family adjustment, including successful family adaptation and longterm resilience. A historical review of the literature on the impacts of children with disability on their family describes longstanding negative assumptions, in keeping with a view of disability as inevitably detrimental to couples and other family members. This meta-analysis finds a much smaller effect on parents' marital relationships than would be expected under older assumptions about disability and family.

ObjectiveTo examine selection criteria for Parent‐to‐Parent support parents trained to provide support to other parents of children with disabilities.MethodTen leaders of Parent‐to‐Parent programmes participated in telephone interviews to explore attributes associated with parents selected to be trained as support parents.ResultsQualitative analysis reveals parents deemed "ready" to become support parents, build relationships, exhibit positivity, build capacities, have good communication skills and a future orientation and feel the need to give back. An additional set of attributes we have named, "red flags" are associated with parents not suitable to provide support are also presented.ConclusionsParent‐to‐Parent support parents are informally identified by a set of characteristics that can be operationalized for screening purposes. Findings provide support for the positive influence of the peer support relationship and identify the need for a measure of parent "readiness" to assist in the recruitment of quality support parents for the Parent‐to‐Parent organization.

This article discusses the relationship between evidence-based practices (EBPs) and values in research and practice pertaining to people with severe disabilities. The importance of basing educational and habilitation practices on substantial scientific evidence for practical, moral, and legal reasons is acknowledged given the prevalence of unsubstantiated fads in this arena and the manifest success of many empirically established EBPs. It also addresses the complexity of issues surrounding the identification and use of EBPs in relation to quality of life and rights-based advocacy for this population. EBPs are discussed in a set of five different relationships with values-based practices (VBPs). In the best of cases, EBPs are consistent with and support VBPs as has often been the case in the recent history of research, practice, and social change. In other cases, the relationship between EBPs and VBPs are more complex and require thoughtful discussion in moving ahead with the important work of establishing and implementing EBPs at scale. The differences between efficacy and effectiveness are discussed in the context of the much needed work on implementing EBPs at a national scale. Examples of necessary information to aid implementation are presented. The necessity of ongoing data collection and implementation of EBPs with fidelity are highlighted.

Family members provide the majority of care for individuals with disabilities in the United States. Recognition is growing that family caregiving deserves and may require societal support, and evidence-based practices have been established for reducing stress associated with caregiving. Despite the substantial research literature on family support that has developed, researchers, advocates and professionals have often worked in separate categorical domains such as family support for caregiving for the frail elderly, for individuals with mental illness, or for people with development disabiliti