Disability Defecit: The Impact of Childhood Disability on Family

This report follows on from an earlier JRF project on childhood disability, which described a minimum budget standard that parents thought necessary to raise a severely disabled child. This book describes the actual spending patterns of parents with severely disabled children and presents a detailed examination of the costs involved. In addition to the financial issues, this report documents the emotional aspects of bringing up a child with severe disabilities. It outlines the processes by which parents, relatives and friends reacted and adapted to the needs of the child to emphasize the wide range of adjustment that parents of severely disabled children experience. The report informs a range of social policy issues, including benefits structure and adequacy; the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; child support; childhood disability; poverty; and the structure and delivery of services to disabled children and their parents.