Search

This paper reports the results of a quantitative 42-item survey that explored foster, adoptive, and kinship parents' (N = 160) utilization of different types of respite services (formal, informal, and a mixture of formal and informal), as well as their impressions of the impact of respite care on aspects of their lives related to family cohesion and stability, caring for their children, and their personal wellbeing. An exploratory cross-sectional, survey design was used to assess both the formal and informal respite care experiences of the foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers. Two-tailed Fisher's exact tests were used to examine the relationship between the type of respite received and caregivers' respite experiences. Findings indicated that parent experiences differed depending on the type of respite services they received. Specifically, parents who used a mixture of formal and informal respite reported positive experiences related to respite more frequently than the other two types of respite groups, while those who received only informal respite reported less benefit than others. Parents who used formal respite (either alone or mixed with informal respite) reported greater stress reduction. The greatest increase in family stability was reported by parents who received a mix of informal and formal respite. While this study revealed clear benefits for families to using both informal and formal respite services, the findings suggest that formal respite care was helpful to parents regardless of whether used alone or in combination with informal care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mental illness takes its emotional and financial toll on the 7.5 million children presently inflicted with a mental disorder in the United States, their families, and society as a whole. Resources and a vision for preventive research has been limited, but the tide appears to be turning. The following paper reviews the literature on prevention and resiliency related to children's mental disorders and outlines some of the recent recommendations from The Institute of Medicine (1994) in regards to the urgency of their proposed agenda for preventive intervention research in the area of child and adolescent mental disorders. Recommendations and implications for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]