Parent-to-parent counseling – a gateway for developing positive mental health for the parents of children that have cerebral palsy with multiple disabilities

Abstract

Parent-to-parent counseling involves the interaction of two groups of parents, senior and junior, whose children suffer from cerebral palsy with multiple disabilities. The main theme of the interaction is the experience accumulated concerning the progress of the treatment of their child, the understanding of parental responsibility, the scope of rehabilitation, and the change of attitude towards their disabled children during the treatment, management and rehabilitation process, under the supervision of a psychologist or rehabilitation psychologist. The aim of the study is an attempt to minimize the gap between caregivers and the affected child through an exchange of knowledge and experience within the therapeutic group interactions. The parents who have been attending the outpatient department at the National Institute for the Orthopaedically Handicapped for a couple of months take a leading role in this interaction program and newcomers benefit through empathetically realizing the therapeutic aspects, and, simultaneously, releasing their internal tensions and anxiety regarding the rehabilitation of their disabled children. The study has been conducted on 50 Bengali speaking parents, who have attended the parent-to-parent interaction program. They were all from rural, urban and city areas within a 150-km radius of the place of study in Kolkata, West Bengal, situated in the eastern part of India. They were all from lower-income group (60%) and middle-income group (40%) families. Their mean educational qualification was XII standard. All the cases were selected from the mild to moderate range of child disability. All the participants indicated the effectiveness of these therapeutic interaction programs, with an average of 80% of parents favoring this program and acknowledging it as most effective.