Resources for parents of children with disabilities/chronic illness and carers
Becoming a carer is a privilege. It usually involves a time that entails many stresses and losses. Sometimes the care of another, can extend over a lifetime. There is not a great deal that has been written about the experience of caring and the unique grieving and stresses for them. Carers frequently gain many skills, are resilient and embody a love that is powerful.
Resources
Strength Groups for parents of children with disabilities or chronic illness: runs over 6 weeks one session a week. Contact Annie about these.
Counseling
Workshops for parents
Supervision for professionals, teaching and workshops
Published material
Grief Matters
The personal care and support of a person with a severe disability or a chronic illness can extend over a lifetime. This article focuses upon the experience of the parents, or carer, and the wider family impact. Carers’ needs are frequently neglected, and the family’s needs disenfranchised. Carers and their families can experience many losses and cumulative grief.
Carer's Guide: Loss and grief issues
Everyone experiences loss during life. This booklet is about loss and grief that arises not only through death but also from a range of other losses. If you are a carer there is loss. These losses are often unrecognized and unacknowledged by those around you and perhaps even yourself, but these losses can have a great effect on your feelings, your physical health, your mental wellbeing, your financial situation and so much more.
One family's quest to find quality of life despite severe disability
After Anthony Bartl was hit by a truck at the age of six, his family made the choice not to turn off the ventilator that was keeping him alive. Now 34, he can only move his head unassisted, but has obtained two degrees and is working to highlight disability issues, writes Damian Coleridge.