Hesperian Health Guides
Community Support
HealthWiki > Disabled Village Children > Chapter 33: The Child with Several Severe Disabilities > Community Support
It is very important that the family have rest periods from caring for their child with severe disabilities. Such rest periods often make the difference between whether or not family members can successfully handle difficulties and continue to treat the child in a loving, supportive way. In some cases, it may be better to provide day care in the child’s own home. The community may be able to provide either volunteers or paid care providers. Whatever the case, it is often too much to expect the family of a child with multiple severe disabilities to care adequately for the child unless the community offers generous help and support. In areas where a community rehabilitation program exists, the program can play an important role. It will usually be neither desirable nor possible for the program to take complete or continual care of a child with severe disabilities. Yet, the program may be able to help in several ways:
- The community rehabilitation workers can regularly visit the home of a child with severe disabilities and give suggestions, assistance, and friendship.
- They can help make or provide special seating or equipment that can help the family to manage the child more easily.
- They can teach the family ways to help stimulate the child’s development and can plan with the family a step-by-step approach toward reaching realistic goals.
- Perhaps they can start something like a day care center where the rehabilitation workers, parents of children with disabilities, other concerned parents in the community, or unemployed young persons can take turns caring for the children with disabilities for part of the day. This could be done on a volunteer basis. Or money to pay for caretakers could be raised by the community, either through donations, raffles, bake sales, musical events, or other fund-raising activities.
For more information on community rehabilitation programs, see Chapter 45.
In some countries, children with severe disabilities may be taken care of in special care centers, or institutions. This may be because of difficulties in the home situation, or because a child with multiple disabilities requires more time, skill or resources than the family can handle. If you or a community member is struggling to care for a child with a disability, reach out to your local organizations or institutions for assistance.
