The psychosocial needs of mothers with primary school physically disabled children : the role of social work in community based rehabilitation

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Disability can be physical or mental and have different causes, which determine how it is classified. This study will concentrate on physical disability. In the past, the causes of disability were associated with many beliefs of which most perceived disability as something bad. In Botswana, even though people now understand the causes of disability, they still associate it with something bad or have not fully accepted disabled people. The beliefs surrounding physical disability are worse due to the fact that the disability is visible.The way people perceive physical disability does not only affect the disabled person, but also their families. As the causes of disability vary and can develop prior to birth or be acquired later in life, they affect the different age groups in different ways. This study will focus on physical disability in school children and will explore the impact it has on their mother's psychosocial needs.The physical disability of school children has different challenges depending on the type of disability. The challenges can be physical, social, economic and psychological. Due to these challenges these children are considered to have special needs and require special care. The special care involves providing for their special basic needs and their medical, social and psychological needs at home and at school. The physically disabled school children also use special equipment which helps them with their daily actives. This equipment needs special care and these children therefore need to go for regular checkups. They also need to be assisted with how to use this equipment at home and school.The challenges of physically disabled school going children are administered by social workers under the Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Programme. The CBR must assist with improving the lives of disabled children and their families. When the social workers attend to the disabled school going child, they concentrate on the medical part of the child's disability, often forgetting other needs. They also do not attend to the mother and her needs, as she is the primary carer.This study was conducted in Letlhakeng village in Botswana. Twenty (20) biological mothers of physically disabled school going children were interviewed using a semi structured questionnaire. The sampling was a non probability purposive sample and the study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of research.The quantitative study has shown that the mothers in the area have limited education and are non-skilled. They are still active and most of them are single parents engaged in low income economic activities or not doing anything and they have a reasonable number of children. Their housing structures are poor and not accessible for the disabled children.The results indicated that mothers know about disability, but the causes have not been fully communicated to them. Even though they consider physical disability to have a natural cause, they still associate it with other beliefs according to which the disability could have happened at birth or after birth. This indicates that cultural beliefs still have an impact.The mothers send their children to school but their schooling is not taken seriously as the mothers do not know about programmes like special education that can help their children. They still have negative feelings when the child is at school. In addition the mothers are not comfortable with the school environment and still believe a disabled child does not have the capacity to learn.The qualitative study showed that mothers have psychosocial needs which are not provided for, as they feel that CBR does not involve them and assist them accordingly. This therefore deprives them of the information and confidence to provide for their disabled children.The mothers do not interact well with their relatives and the community due to the negative attitudes they have towards the disabled. They also lack support from them and from the social workers, because at the time of this study there was no social worker in the area.The mothers showed that they have the burden of caring for their disabled children and this is affecting them physically, economically, socially and psychologically.The role of social work in rehabilitation is still not taken seriously as indicated by the fact that the post at the rehabilitation office has remained vacant for so long.Overall, mothers have psychosocial needs and experience difficulties in coping with the burden of providing for their physically disabled school going children and the social workers are not playing their role in this regard to assist them.The recommendation is made for advocacy to assist the physically disabled children and their families especially the mothers as the primary caregivers and to improve the role of the social worker.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University