Parental satisfaction of children with moderate and severe intellectual disability treated in daycare centers

Abstract

Modern trends of treatment of children with moderate and severe intellectual disability points to the need for improved treatment in daycare centers and other services for their support in the community. The biological families must be given greater support to prevent the need of institutionalization. In order to achieve social inclusion community needs to offer more services for children with intellectual disability. Using qualitative and quantitative research strategies we give the current picture of parental satisfaction with treatment in daycare centers in the Republic of Macedonia and take note of the main proposals of parents for improve functioning of daycare centers, but also the quality of life of their children and families in general. For this research we applied our instrument that measures the satisfaction of parents / foster parents after four essentials: quality of service, independence of children, social literacy and adaptability. Using focus groups, we got the biggest problems faced by parents / foster parents and stated their proposals. This survey covered a total of 145 respondents, of which 115 in the role of parents and 30 foster parents of children with moderate and severe intellectual disability. The research results indicate that parents are satisfied with the treatment in daycare centers, but still have a number of proposals from which they expect more support to children and the family as a whole. The role of the respondents had no significance in terms of customer satisfaction, as well as sex and education, a degree of intellectual disability of children is related only in part of the quality of services. There is a positive correlation between the quality of service, independence, social literacy and adaptability.