Challenges and Coping Strategies of Primary Caregivers of Children with Autism : Basis for Quality Congruent Care / Zuniga.

Includes bibliographical references.

This study focused on the challenges and coping strategies of primary caregivers of children with autism. It seeks to describe the challenges and coping mechanisms, the insights that emerged from the experiences and the adjustments done. The respondents of the study include sixteen (16) primary caregivers of children with autism chosen through purposive sampling in the locales of Samal, Orani and City of Balanga, province of Bataan. A quantitative phenomenological approach investigated the challenges and coping strategies of primary caregivers of children with autism. An in-depth guided interview was used following the 1978's Colaizzi's method for phenomenological data analysis. Individual characteristics unveiled twenty four (24) to be the youngest while fifty four (54) is the oldest primary caregiver, thirty six (36) to forty (40) years old has the highest number of participants with six (6), followed by forty six (46) to fifty (50) years old with four (4) participants, three (3) are form ages forty one (41) to forty five (45), one (1) each for twenty (20) to twenty five (25) and thirty one (31) to thirty five (35) for age; twelve (12) females and four (4) males; with one (1) each for single, widowed, annulled and separated, twelve are married for civil status; college degree holders with seven (7) participants is the highest, high school graduate with three (3) participants, college undergraduate, high school undergraduate and vocational courses has two (2) participants each for educational attainment; four (4) participants got monetary support from more than one (1) source while twelve (12) participants received financial support from a source; relation to the child with autism revealed ten (10) mothers, four (4) fathers, one (1) grandmother and one (1) sister; fourteen (14) are Tagalog, one (1) Kapampangan and one (1) Mandaya for ethnicity. For the challenges of primary caregivers, emerging themes are categorized into physical, emotional, spiritual and social. On the physical category, the themes were: financial burdens, experiencing aggressive behavior, exhaustion, unsanitary surrounding and irregularities of sleep; as regard emotional, themes were: in search of the diagnosis, handling tantrums, uncertainty of the child's future, untoward reactions of the siblings, marital stress and conflict, rejection and bad mouthing of others and self-blame; the theme uncovered by the spiritual category is questioning the Creator; while on social, restricted association and improper support of the government were the themes revealed. For the second part, the range of coping strategies employed by the participants were: seek pieces of advice from the health care providers, self-study about the case, gain strength from social support, prayers to the Almighty and unconditional love. The assumption that there are different challenges experienced by the primary caregivers of children with autism and various coping strategies are revealed. Primary caregivers undertook different strategies in addressing the challenges they faced. It is deemed that this study contributes not only as an academic research but also as a strong basis for quality congruent care in particular. In the light of the revealed findings and based on conclusion drawn, the researcher came up with the following proposals: the government should take a thorough profiling of differently-abled people including children with autism, require nursing education program to include the integration of disability-related content in the curricula, a seminar/symposium may be organized within the different municipalities, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician will be of reach within the government hospitals in the province, creating an environment that is conducive for differently-abled people within different establishments, especially in health care facilities, free or with minimal amount of occupational and speech therapy sessions for children with disabilities in the rural health units, special education center per municipality should be established that caters special classes for differently-abled children, the government should provide financial assistance to PWDs and enrolled them in Phil Health, proper utilization of funds for PWDs, counselling sessions for the primary caregivers and other family members and further research may be done by considering other types of disability.