Abstract

Aim: We interviewed the disabled adults to establish how respite care can help disabled children to become independent.
Methods: Informed consent was obtained from each of the five participants who are disabled adults. They were interviewed in depth about their experiences of childhood respite care. The analysis was restructured into subcategories and categories with the consideration of the developmental stage of the participants, focusing on the context that led to the assessment and the problems of respite care. This study was carried out upon approval from the ethics committee of the author’s institution.
Results: The participants’ respite care experiences began with “difficulties of receiving care from nonparent caregivers” in their elementary/junior high school years to “getting to know the worker(s) they could trust” and “making friends for life”. From their high school years onwards, respite care started to become the opportunity to “choose their caregivers”, “interact with their seniors with the same disabilities and build hopes for their own future” and “continue training towards their independence”. Furthermore, it transpired that the participants’ outlook on respite care reached the current status of “living with hope” via “understanding of and conflict with parents’ feelings” in their elementary to high school years and “emotional independence from parents” in their high school years.
Conclusion: The study showed that disabled children could earn their abilities of “care management” and “social living” and build the chance of “independence from parents” through the use of respite care. This result points to the educative contribution of respite care to the development and independence of disabled children.