Developmental Disability Essay Example

The attention of the social media

In many years, there have been a couple’s tragedies that caught the attention of social media. These incidents were related to caring for adults with developmental disabilities. The primary cause is that the caregivers are not able to tolerate the stress that emanates from taking care of these individuals with the disability. They eventually commit suicide (Buck, 2014). Cases of domiciling the children and killing themselves are also common. Any caregiver will most likely be affected by the stress resulting from taking care of adult children with the developmental problem. They are vulnerable to adverse impacts of the stress because of the long duration they will have to cope caring for the loved one with a mental disability. If these patients are from the poor backgrounds, the situation becomes worse because the parents will also be weak. It means that they will not be able to access the nursing or medical assistance, meaning they will not be able to learn strategies for reducing the stress. As result, many suicidal cases have been reported in Hong Kong for the past few year.

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The primary cause of the problem is the lack of information to the Hong Kong families and the caregivers who deal with children having a mental disability. The number of people living in Hong Kong China with developmental disability is increasing leading to increase in number of the people seeking care (Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics, 2015). However, there is no increment in the resources required to take care of the increasing population. There are very limited resources allocate for the problem. A good example is that the average wait time for the vacancy of residential care center for adults with a developmental disability is ten years. Again, limited resources are available to teach and support the caregivers who are at high level of stress chronically. The most affected group is the family and informal caretakers who have not being trained on the less stressful ways of caregiving. The Chinese government should increase the number of nurses who can aid the family caregivers. They have the culture and belief that it is the role of the household to take care of the patients. Training them on the ways of taking care of the patients will reduce the overall stress. The resources will be required to implement such action.

The rehabilitation services

Unlike in the past where the government would respond to such tragedies promptly, the situation has changed, and it is taking longer to respond. The tremendous stress has affected the caregiver for decades, and it has never been solved. The expenditure on the rehabilitation services for adults with mental illness has been increasing yearly, but the allocation is still insufficient considering the level of the situation. There is high demand for rehabilitation services and low supply, and hence many adults with developmental disability continue to remain home with unspecialized caregivers with no support. The situation has never improved.

The problem of the limited resources is still existing, and the caregivers are living with the stress due to lack of sufficient support from the government. Given the unceasing number of Asian adults with a developmental disability, with minimal attention given to the caregivers, the problem remains.

Issues of stress to the caregivers is expected to rise in the new future because of the trend of increase in the number of adults with developmental disability. The limited support given by the society and the government shows there is a high risk of the increase in the incidents shortly, especially if the problem of stress with the caregivers is not treated.

The Chinese government

The purpose of the research is to examine the relationship between the caregiver cognitive processes contribution to vulnerability to emotion disorders and maladaptive stress coping. It will also aim at evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to the caregivers to reduce their felt stress.

The Chinese government has set allocation for supporting the caregiver of adults with mental disorders but the problem of insufficient resources still hinders effective care to the patients. Despite the presence of the various intervention that would result in minimal stress most of the children with developmental disability do not receive the right care (Darlami, Ponnose, & Jose, 2015). There is series of barriers, the main one being the lack of resources to support the caregivers. Lack of adult treatment services is a universal problem. Lack of resources is not only in Hong Kong but all the parts of the world (World Health Organization, 2009). Hong Kong is affected by misdistribution and low enrollment in a program that is meant to take care of the patients such as adult psychiatry programs in the country. One cause of this problem is that the people have a stereotype that it is the role of the family to take care of the elderly and members with mental problems. The cultural belief is making the people desist from enrolling the patients in care programs. Besides, there is no enough facilities and trained personnel that would give support to the formal and informal caregivers to reduce the stress.

The stress has resulted in many killings of the individual with the disability, by the parents. The legal term for the action is filicide, where parents murders their child. However, in the disability, the term filicide is used when talking about the parent or close relative who might have killed because of disability. In the past five more than 400 people have been killed by the parents and family caregivers (Disability Day of Mourning, 2017). There are many reasons cited by the media to justify the killing of the people living with a disability. Stress the first reason because of the burden experienced as result of having a disabled person in the family.

Schulz and Sherwood

Schulz and Sherwood (2008) confirmed that caregiving of individual with developmental disability contributes to stress and physical worn out. The stress increases especially when the care is given by a family member or informal caregiver who is not trained. According to the researcher, it was identified that assuming the role of caregiving causes stress and burdensome, not only to adults with mental problems but also to elders with mental problems (Schulz & Sherwood, 2008). It was found that caregiving has all the characteristics chronic stress. There is physical and psychological strain over a long time. Uncertainty usually accompanies caregiving, and it cannot be controlled (Hsiao & Riper, 2010). It also has a capability to create a secondary stress in more than the caregiver but to the whole family. Some of the secondary stress caused by caregiving to adults living with disabilities include work related stress and family. Caregiving fits in the formula of chronic stress because it has all its characteristics, and it can be used as a model for studying the health effects.

Caregiving has been a critical issue in the healthcare of the different nations. In China particularly Hong Kong, families are the main sources of caregiving to adults living with disability. The informal caregivers lack the skills of coping with the stress, and hence the increased number of deaths. However, there is a new trend, whereby the role of nurses of taking care of the patients as shifted to offering education and assisting the medical services.

Caregiver stress and burnout is a common problem faced by the caregivers. The role of giving is very demanding and can sometimes be overwhelming, especially when one has little or no control over the situation (Wong, author, Lam, Chan, & Chan, 2012). When the stress of caregiving to the individuals is not checked, it can escalate to risky levels as well as be taking a toll on the health. It can affect the state of mind as well as affecting the relationships, and leading to burn out. There are various signs of stress in caregiving. Lack of awareness and coping techniques has resulted in many cases of filicide and homicides, which is the new form violence in the society (Wilson, 2012). Anxiety and depression are some of the signs of stress. Feeling tired and run down, as well as overreacting are signs of burnout. It can cause trouble in concentrating. On the other hand, the signs and the symptoms of burnout include having less energy than we had, always being exhausted, or getting little satisfaction caring them anymore.

The selected sampling method

The selected sampling method is purposive sampling. It is the type of the research in which one relies on own judgment when choosing the members to participate in the research. It is a non-probability sampling that happens when the sample to take part in the research is selected by the researcher. The sampling can be used both with qualitative and quantitative research techniques. The researcher’s bias during the selection increases the biases of the research (Tongco, 2007). Purposive sampling follows various steps. The first one is deciding on the research problem that researcher is interested in studying. The next step is deciding the type of the information that is needed from the individual as well as the time and resources required for sampling. It is important to consider the importance of the reliability and competence in selecting the participants. The technique will be important for the research because I will be studying a particular group. It will be convenient because it will involve subjects that I have at my current job, more than 150 individuals.

After recruiting the 150 subjects of the study, the participants will be randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. After the experiment, the data will be analyzed to assess the amount of change in the value of the dependent variable from the pre-test to the post-test for each group separately. The selected random experimental design will be important to the study because the experimental and the control groups will be tested separately.

References

Buck, T. R. (2014). Psychiatric comorbidity and medication use in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 44(12), 3063-3071.

Darlami, K., Ponnose, R., & Jose, P. (2015). Caregiver's Stress of Psychiatric Patients . Journal of Universal College of Medical Sciences , 39-43.

Hong Kong Monthly Digest of Statistics. (2015). Persons with Disabilities and Chronic Diseases in Hong Kong. Feature Article, 85(7), 517-526. Retrieved from http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B71501FB2015XXXXB0100.pdf

Hsiao, C.-Y., & Riper, M. V. (2010). Research on caregiving in Chinese families living with mental illness: A critical review. Journal of Family Nursing, 16(1), 68-100.

Disability Day of Mourning – Remembering the Disabled Murdered by Caregivers. (2017). Disability-memorial.org. Retrieved 5 April 2017, from http://disability-memorial.org/

Schulz, R., & Sherwood, P. R. (2008). Physical and Mental Health Effects of Family Caregiving. Am J Nurs, 108(9), 23-27. doi:10.1097/01.NAJ.0000336406.45248.4c

Tongco, M. D. (2007). Purposive sampling as a tool for informant selection.

Wilson, C. (2012). The Impact on Mothers of Raising a Child with Significant Disabilities in the Developing World. larchecommons.ca.

Wong, D. F., author, Lam, A. Y., Chan, S. K., & Chan, S. F. (2012). Quality of life of caregivers with relatives suffering from mental illness in Hong Kong: roles of caregiver characteristics, caregiving burdens, and satisfaction with psychiatric services. Health and Quality of Life