Qualidade de vida, necessidades terapêuticas e preocupações de pais de crianças com necessidades especiais: abordagem centrada na família (original) (raw)

Parents of children with special needs (SN) face daily challenges that concurrently have an impact on their quality of life (QoL) and the dynamics of the child environment. The developmental handicap can cause a range of parental needs and concerns that will also influence the context in which the child develops. In pediatric physical therapy, the comprehensive care allows finding strategies to work with the family, enhancing the outcomes. Objectives: To evaluate the QoL, therapeutic needs and concerns of children with SN's parents. Methods: Questionnaires were applied to 30 parents of children with SN, including (1) assessment of the family framework and therapeutic resources; (2) parents perception of living with the situation; (3) WHOQOL-BREF (Portuguese version); (4) PEDS. The data were processed using software SPSS 18. Results: Questionnaires were mostly answered by the mothers. It was found that the mean scores on QoL were 62,08. The most common concerns were in the areas of language, autonomy, movement and behavior, and parents who showed more concern were the parents of children with cerebral palsy. The therapeutic needs most frequently mentioned were speech therapy, hydrotherapy, hippotherapy, occupational and physical therapy. It was possible to identify several statistically significant correlations, such between the degree of parental concerns and the psychological domain of QoL (-0.369, p <0.05) and between perception of the therapeutic needs and the degree of concerns (0.511, p <0,01). Conclusion: The results indicate that most of these parents has different perception of QoL, and a considerable number of concerns about child development, as well as needs. Keywords: parenting a child with special needs, quality of life, concerns, therapeutic needs, comprehensive care vii viii 3.1.4. Perceção dos pais de crianças com necessidades especiais no que diz respeito às dificuldades do filho nos domínios da funcionalidade .