The paper presents a new model of functioning of a family with a disabled child. The family is treated according to the systemic approach taking into regard the interactions and relations between its members as well as a broader environmental context (Minuchin, 1975, Hinde, 1988, van Geert, 1990). The model proposed encompasses the six fundamental dimensions of family functioning, including those of subjectivity and plasticity. The model can be applied in analyses of families with a disabled as well as a fully fit child.
This article describes psychosocial situation of a family with genetically disabled child. Birth of a disabled child leads usually to fundamental changes in a family system. Each of family members is to learn new roles and to settle a new place in this system. Not only a place should be found for a new family member but a new lifestyle should be established as well. In the turbulences connected to diagnosis, rehabilitation and therapy one should still remember that family integration with a disabled child consists of two areas: emotional (love, attachment, acceptance) and task-oriented (participation in household members’ life).
The birth of a disabled child is an event, which has an influence on the quality of family life. In the article the author presents how the child’s disability determines life situation of other family members. The paper described the specificity of parental roles in the family with a disabled child and the analyzed psychosocial situation of the healthy siblings.
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