Emotional adjustments made by parents of physically disabled children following their discharge from institutional care : a case study of Cheshire Homes,Lusaka Zambia
Scholars such as Hornby (1994), have proposed that the parents of disabled children go through a series of emotional adjustments which lead to the final state of acceptance of the child's condition. Based on Hornby's adaptation model, this study set out to establish the emotional adjustments made by parents of children with physical disabilities following discharge from institutionalised care.Data was collected from a sample of twenty parents and fifteen staff of Cheshire home in Kabulonga. The parents were drawn from the sum of Lusaka based parents whose children had been discharged from Cheshire Home within the last five years.Data was collected using three methods namely; self administered questionnaires, semi structured interviews and focus group discussions. Results of the study revealed that the parents' emotional adjustments were highly individualised. The pattern of emotional adjustments made by the parents understudy was spiral rather than the linear continuum suggested by Hornby and other scholars. A notable factor was that there seemed to be no absolute end-point of the motional adjustments experienced by the parents. The study also revealed that there is a relationship between the parents' emotional adjustments and most of the socio-economic factors studied. Further, that the child's movement between the institution and the parental home was characterised by emotional experiences associated with related practical problems faced by the parents. This was especially so during the period following the child's return from the institution.
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