Children of Disabled Parents: New Thinking About Families Affected by Disability and Illness Book

This text explores the impact of parental disability on children, especially where lack of support to families results in significant restrictions to children's day-to-day lives. It reviews the literature on parental disability and its impact on children; considers why concern for the children of disabled parents has emerged at this particular juncture of history; explores whether the presence of parental disability affects the self-reported health and well-being of children; discusses how children's strengths as well as their vulnerabilities can be identified and promoted; and suggests how more effective social care services can be delivered to children in families affected by disability or chronic illness. The core theme of this book is neither that parental disability is always a source of risk or suffering for children, nor that it will leave children unaffected and in no need of help or protection. It is rather that, whether disabled or not and despite their occasional failings, parents are the most important source of support for children, and that disability is a normal and essentially unremarkable aspect of the human condition. Recognizing the strengths and capacities of parents and supporting them in their parental duties remains the single best way of guaranteeing chidren's present and future welfare. The focus is on physical, sensory and psychological impairments, including learning disabilities, and severe and chronic illness. For reasons of space and the specialist nature of these issues, discussion of children affected by parental drug and alcohol dependency is left to take place elsewhere.Read More