Promoting Family Collaboration.

PROMOTING FAMILY COLLABORATION 

24 minutes, VHS, 1998.

Viewers get an inside perspective on the stressful reality of raising an infant with an chronic illness. Parents react differently--some show their feelings while others retreat from the situation. Some parents featured in this video share how hard it is going home from the hospital without their babies, as well as the financial and emotional hardships associated with a chronically ill child. The video suggests ways that medical personnel, therapists, and auxiliary staff can provide information, training, and support to parents and extended family members affected by this stressful situation. Training for medical personnel addresses working within the parents' pace (day-to-day or minute-to-minute), dealing with parents' religious beliefs, providing a flexible visiting schedule, and offering information on transportation and lodging within the vicinity of the hospital. Each family must be treated individually. The film includes footage on helping parents become familiar and comfortable with medical equipment (e.g., tubes, wires, heart monitors, etc.). Attention is also placed on familiarizing parents with available services and their rights, and encouraging them to become advocates for their child.

Extensions: This is an excellent resource for preservice and inservice medical personnel (e.g., nurses, doctors, therapists, and social workers, etc.) and early childhood special education teachers. Segments also can be used with parents of special needs infants as conversational icebreakers.