January 18, 2025 2:00pm 3:15pm Forum West 1-2
Parents of children with disabilities often report increased levels of depression and anxiety. They are at high risk for caregiver stress, burnout, and burden, which are conditions of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. When their mental health needs are not met, it poses a significant risk to their well-being. Consequently, these affect their family’s adaptive functioning, as well as the interrelationships within the family. According to literature, there are three major themes identified as being central to the improvement of parents’ mental health. One of them is professional training in skills development. When parents are provided with resources, strategies, and information regarding their child’s behavior or diagnosis, their stress levels decrease at the same time as their quality-of-life increases. Research also suggests that parental engagement in self-care strategies can provide a healthy coping model for their children. Thus, promoting child self-care and overall wellness. In general, parent self-care is essential to coping with stress, and if these self-care needs are not met, this can negatively influence the parent-child relationship, which can ultimately have an impact on the child’s and parents’ quality of life. This mini workshop will be geared toward parent attendees. The main aim of this mini workshop is to provide experiential psychoeducation on wellness and stress.
Learning Outcomes:
1. To talk about parental mental health and stress, specifically identifying risk-factors and red-flags,
2. To discuss wellness exercises and self-care strategies
3. To highlight the importance of parent mental health and parent-child relationships.”
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