Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Tutorial six


Tutorial Six
As a sibling who grow up around family with disabilities I have a clear understanding for the need for support from places where you can express your feelings and needs in a safe environment. Due to this I am basing this post on of the support groups and communities who provide services to families who are living with individuals who have disabilities or special needs and want help dealing with their feelings and the aspects of life that they are experiencing.

Family Network
This community is made up of various parents and family members that are living with a child or children who have a disability. Their aim is to provide support, information and advocacy for these families. The sites purpose is to help people become aware they are not alone, there are people going through similar experiences. The site is moderately interactive with links to contacts for joining a support groups and also links to a blog set up by the support groups. By having this link to a blog people have the options to comment on the information provided on the blog and also gain more information of what the support groups do. By joining this support group web page and blog or contacting them to become a part of a specific group, there becomes an opportunity to meet people who are having similar experiences to yourself, receive information on family outing and also helps to increase the personal support you require to manage your own life experience. People choose to be a part of this support group as they get the opportunity to feel that they are helping others while also helping themselves. As information can be shared on a blog the people who want to contribute have the option to.
Kids Health, Support groups A-Z:
 This is an interactive site that is run by an organisation who are linked in with StarShip hospital. The site links people into all and any abailible support groups for all sorts of conditions including head injury support groups, ADHD support groups and even support groups for those with arthritis. The site is very interactive and easy to navigate your way around. It provides access to support for family, friends and even the person that is having the experience and requires support.
Kiwi Families
This web site that provides information, support and advice to families that may need it. It is interactive as it links you in to other sites such as parent to parent which are a site for parents to communicate with each other. The site helps to link you in with families that are having similar experiences or have family members with similar conditions.

By joining the sites such as family network, Kids Health Support groups A-Z  and Kiwi Families can enable a people to ease into occupational transition. Making a transition from their prior life and occupations, to having a life that requires them to care for a child with a disability. It could also help to prevent occupational deprivation from occurring as when life has large changes made to it such as having a child with a disability some people cut themselves off, depriving themselves of any occupations they did prior to this child coming into their life. By receiving support from others that are experiencing similar things to themselves people may be able to develop new occupations and be involved in new occupations allowing them to replace the occupations they were being deprived of with similar or better occupations. Ethical issues that may be made could be that if an individual does not have an understanding of the site they are using they may end up posting personal information that they meant as a private conversation.
Overall each of these web pages along with many more help to link together people who are going through similar experiences and allows them to gain the support they need while going through any difficulties. Most people think people won’t understand if they haven’t experienced it and though these support groups people are provided with a way to communicate with those who do understand and that are feeling similar or the same as they are themselves.

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