Family Interventions to Prevent Maltreatment of Children With Disabilities

In addition to the challenges inherent to physical and cognitive impairments, children with disabilities are at high risk of exhibiting behavioral and emotional problems. Consequently, their parents are under undo stress, which in some instances may lead to child abuse. Specifically, children with disabilities are 3 to 4 times more likely to be abused than are their normally developing peers. This alarming statistic is a consequence of a set of interrelated factors that include the child, the disability, the family, and the socioeconomic environment where they live. In this installment of Ethical Crossroads, Murphy examines those factors. She ends her commentary by emphasizing the importance of recognizing the caregivers' needs. In her mind, patient-focused rehabilitation interventions fall short of the mark. Instead, providing support to the family unit is a more fitting approach to the multidisciplinary care of a child with disabilities.