Support Networks for the Greek Family with Preschool or School-Age Disabled Children

Introduction: The interaction of the family with disabled children with the support networks is a research area of high interest (Hendriks, De Moor, Oud & Savelberg, 2000). It has been shown that support networks may prove to be very helpful for a family and especially for a family with a disabled child. Support networks play a primordial role in the families' efforts to adapt to the disability and respond to its members' psychosocial needs (DeMarle & Le Roux, 2001). The target of the present research is to depict the support networks and the degree of satisfaction from the support experienced by 30 Greek families with disabled children of preschool or school age and then to compare their experience with that of 30 families with non-disabled children. Method: The sample consists of 60 nuclear families, in total 12 parents of medium socio-economic status, all permanent residents of the island of Rhodes, Greece. Data collection used: 1) "Genogram" (Bowen, 1978), 2) "Family's Ecomap: (Hartman, 1978a), 3) "Social Support Questionnaire" (Sarason, Sarason, Sherin & Pierce, 1987), and 4) Semi-structured interviews. Results: According to the findings of the study families with and without disabled children share common support networks (family of origin, friends, religion) but the families with a disabled child also use different support networks (other families with disabled children, specialists). All families express satisfaction when referring to support networks composed of individuals. The degree of satisfaction varies when they refer to institutionalised support networks. Conclusion: The families with a disabled child don't feel sufficiently supported by social structures (school, intervention centres). This is due to the fact that the geographically remote regions of Greece suffer from a lack of structures to support these families. Besides, the families feel anxiety and anger because of the lack of social support (services, specialised personnel, discriminatory practices). (Contains 3 tables.