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Why is it important for these parents to receive respite services?

Because of the difficult challenges parents of special needs children face, respite is a vital component of services needed to maintain mental health and avoid mental breakdown, burnout, and depression. Many of these parents are also single parents, low-income parents, guardians, or one parent is working while the other is at home full-time with the children. They are often overwhelmed, fatigued, emotionally spent and depressed due to lack of sufficient time to themselves especially if having to care for more than one child and/or an adult relative.

Challenges faced by these parents and their children without respite.

Parenting a special needs child in and of itself can be a full-time 24-hour job. In my experience my some who is now six years of age whose autism is low to moderate end of the spectrum. My daughter is on the higher functioning end of the spectrum. I spent many sleepless nights due to my son having insomnia and would wake up the whole house. We eventurally had to give him a sleep aid in order for him to sleep through the night. My wife moreso than me lived with very little sleep totaling anywhere from 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night. She did that for the better part of five years while also raising one other child who is also on the spectrum but was able to sleep through the night. From age eighteen months to now we spent a lot of time at doctors’ offices for him and his twin sister. When they turned two I got a job that I had to put in long hours and started traveling across the county. My wife was overwhelmed, fatigued, and yes depressed but had no other choice but to march on.

What respite services including siblings can bring to these parents and their children and the community?

Respite services that would including siblings not approved for DDS would provide much needed down time to parents who otherwise cannot afford another source of respite childcare for all of their children. It also may help them accomplish tasks for their household much more efficiently by taking one day a week to run errands rather than trying to fit things into an already hectic daily schedule. It may also help them to attend meetings for other services provided, support groups, and social events that children are not able to attend, and where the childcare isn’t a provided service. By keeping these parents healthy in mind and spirit, they are much more capable of meeting the high demands of their family and create more productive families for our community.

Finding a Solutions That May Effectively Address This Problem.

As a father affected by many of the issues mentioned above, I have thought of many ways to address this issue. The main obstacle to not having siblings included in child respite services is funding. Money, of course, is a necessity for any program but is possible without funding in some cases.

One possible solution would be recruiting volunteers to avoid funding issues. Volunteers could be recruited through the community or professionally through other service providers. Professionals already in this field working toward a degree may be able to count respite service provided towards hours on an internship or credits for college. Community members either involved with special needs groups or just looking to give their time to the community would also be a wonderful resource.

Fundraising through parent support groups could also be an option. Bake sales, children's art, rummage sales and car washes are a few fundraising options that could work quite well to fund sibling included respite services. Older siblings could also volunteer and would be great since they are used to interacting with the children they would know how to properly respond to the children.

CONCLUSION:

I think utilizing any of the proposed ideas and creating a broader program including siblings for respite services is not only a good idea but vital to the wellbeing of the families needing it. Providing this service to parents with more than one child is beneficial to the families. It also helps the community as well. By creating healthier parents, we create healthier families and in turn more healthy productive families contributing to the community.