The impact of early intervention services on the quality of life of parents with a child with developmental disorders

Abstract

Introduction.Quality of life is one of the most important areas which are examined within human well-being around the world. The term “quality of life” was first defined by World Health Organization as a life which reflects how people perceive their place in life, in culture and value system where they live and where they make relationships to objectives, standards or interests. (ISOQL, 2008). Currently, the concept of quality of life is Associated with several possible approaches and various disciplines, such as economics, environmental science, medicine, sociology, psychology, political science and demography (Andrejovský et al., 2012). This multidisciplinary interest has resulted in the problem complexity and diversity of views on the quality of life, which enriches all parties involved, but also causes various problems. The concept of quality of life is not very consistent, which lacks consensus about its meaning (Hajduová et al., 2011). Effects of globalization and rapid economic changes result also in changes in quality of life. We aimed to examine family quality of life (FQOL) of families having a child with a neurodevelopmental disability The cohort included parents of 40 children ages (0-3 years), 1st group – 20 parents beneficiaries of ECI services programs more than 12 months, and 20 parents beneficiaries of ECI services less that 12 months. Materials and Methods.For evaluation QoL of parents we have used the Questionnaire elaborated by Centre BEACH University of Kansas (2012). We have used more relevant 11 questions from the 25, because we concentrated on physical, psychiatrical and social dimensions of QoL, only. Children’s diagnosis included Down syndrome (55%), cerebral palsy (22%), autistic spectrum disorder (15%), and intellectual disability (8%).Results.According our data, Early intervention services had a relevant positive impact on the QoL of parents after 12 monts of beneficiaries more that 12 months. In the group of parents with ECI experience less than 12 month 3 questions had a positive response (70-75%). In a group of parents usingECI services more than 12 month in all 11 questions answer ws positive in all 11 questions (75-100% degree of satisfaction). Conclusion. The test BEACH is an appropriate tool for estimation of QoL of parents with a child with disability. Because of heterogeneous degree of severity of disability in each group of children and the modest number of questioned parents the research should be continued for obtaining more precise data.