CHALLENGES OF PARENTS SEEKING SOCIAL SERVICES FOR THEIR

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

An Undergraduate Thesis

Presented to the Faculty of the

College of Arts and Sciences Education

University of Mindanao

Davao City

In Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of

Science in Social Work

Flores, Crisyl Joy B.

Ortega, Joanna Marie L.
Naupan, Deo Agustine P.

March 2023

INTRODUCTION
 The social work profession has a longstanding commitment to social justice,
and its current mission is to help create opportunities for the most vulnerable members
of society (Bishop-Fitzpatrick, Dababnah, Baker-Ericzén, Smith, & Magaña, 2019).
Raising a child with special needs can be a daunting task. When parents find that their
kid has a specific disability, they begin on a process that usually involves powerful
emotions and difficult choices (Taderera & Hall, 2017,p. 1; Friantary, Afriani, &
Nopitasari, 2020). Many families face difficulty in understanding the challenges of
raising a child with special needs. In addition, due to a lack of personal time, they say
they feel socially isolated from friends, extended family, or social groups they want to
be a part of. Due to the child's dependency, behavior, and health issues, parents may
experience pessimism, anger, and shame (Mohan, R. & Kulkarni, M., 2018). Also,
there are a lot of parents who are unaware of the availability of programs, services,
and policies meant to help their children with special needs. Parents' experiences and
views varied depending on the type of respite care they received. Some parents
thought that receiving respite care from family members was the best option, while
others thought that receiving respite care from professionals was the best option
(Cooke, Smith, & Brenner 2020). Many families report that they have little
knowledge about these services, and that they face social stigma when trying to access
them (Papoudi, Jørgensen, Guldberg, & Meadan, 2021). Parents of children with
special education needs are at risk for stigmatized identities, including the notion that
they are "the father/mother who has a kid with problems" because they are close to
family members who have conditions (Chan K.K.S. & Lam C.B. 2018). Special
needs refer to people who have disabilities that are often more serious than those of
the average person. These disabilities may be physical, mental, or psychological and
these children will need extra help and may need additional services. In addition,
children with special needs may need lifetime guidance and support when dealing
with everyday issues, such as social involvement, acceptance, and finances. This
review will help healthcare professionals to improve their communication style with
children and their families, so that everyone can work together to provide the best
possible care for these children (Boshoff, Bowen‐Salter, Gibbs, Phillips, Porter, &
Wiles, 2021).
 In Lagos, Nigeria, there is a perception that certain disabilities are more
‘includable’ within the country’s inclusive learning settings than others, based on a
cultural logic that places different bodily impairments on a hierarchy. Furthermore,
women are held as responsible when a child is born with a disability, women typically
bear the burden of meeting the health and education needs of such a child (Brydges, &
Mkandawire, 2020). Parents seeking social services for children with special needs
suggests that parents often face numerous barriers when trying to access the right
information. The barriers include limited access to accurate and reliable information,
difficulties navigating complex systems and bureaucratic processes, and a lack of
understanding of the social services available (Dorman, 2019).

In the Philippines, some households that earn low incomes continue to have
trouble accessing quality health care. This can sometimes mean that these people do
not get the medical care they need, which can lead to serious health problems (Luu,
Brubacher, Lau, Liu, & Dodd, 2022). The fear of large medical bills has a significant
impact on people's decisions to seek medical care in the Philippines, especially among
those who are poor (Luu, Brubacher, Lau, Liu, & Dodd, 2022). Parents of children
with special needs experience higher levels of stress than parents of typically
developing children. This is due in part to the fact that families of children with
special needs are particularly vulnerable to problems accessing healthcare, social
services, information, and other supports (Kim, Wang, Dababnah, & Betz, 2021).

In Davao City and Tagum City, some parents and guardians of children with
special needs have a hard time getting social services for their children with special
needs (Lasco, Nuevo, Nolasco, Famaloan, Bundoc, Capili, & Bermejo, 2022). This is
because these families usually have lower incomes. Parents are often forced to
negotiate with the healthcare system, which can be difficult given the financial burden
of a disability Lasco, et al, 2022).

Thus, this urges the researchers to conduct this study to better know the
challenges of parents seeking social services for their children with special needs. This
study will help understand the situation of every parent who struggles in seeking
social services. The services that the parents must have especially for their children
with special needs. Parents and society benefit when social workers are well-trained
and have access to the best programs and services. This will help reduce the social
stigma associated, with these programs and services and help ensure that they are
effective and efficient the parents seeking social services will be at ease knowing there
will be services provided for their children with special needs.

The researchers’ purpose of this study is to discover the challenges experienced

by the parents of children with special needs in seeking social services. At this stage
of research, the challenges of parents in seeking social services will help us determine
the underlying support and needs of the parents toward their children with special
needs. Additionally, it intends to accomplish all of its goals through a process; the
researchers will want to explore the challenges of parents seeking social services
following the question: first, what are the parents’ challenges experienced in seeking
social services? Second, how did the parents cope with these challenges? Lastly, what
insights the parents can give to their co-parents who have children with special needs?
Through gathering information, those questions will be answered, and discover the
challenges of parents seeking social services for their children with special needs.

The researchers believed the findings of this study will be highly beneficial and
significant to the following: This can be beneficial to the parents of children with
special needs as well as other parents seeking social services, this will be significant
knowledge of the progress they had and appreciate their commitment to the process
they are into that will be seen in this study. In addition, the findings of this study may
be of great help to the social services program as this will serve as a reference tool to
further refine the existing programs and give great consideration of the parent’s
perception of the program to provide and cater to the needs for their assistance, at the
same time for the benefit of the Agency. Furthermore, this study will serve as an eye-
opener to society, for this will supply enough knowledge as to how people cope with
their needs as well as the programs provided has the common goal of helping and
reintegration of lives among clients. This will also allow them to realize the
stigmatizing label of society towards their children. Moreover, this will also be
favorable to Social Work students. As future Social Workers, they may find the
study's findings useful in raising awareness and understanding of specific cases.
Lastly, it is hoped that future researchers who want to conduct studies related to this
research may use this as their reference and to further improve the findings through
the recommendations that will be cited herein.

To make the study concrete, it is necessary to present relevant theories. This

study was anchored to the theory Parent Role Development Theory (PRDT) (Mowder,
1991a, 1991b) theory that explains how individuals' perceptions of parenting change
over time. As children progress from childhood to adulthood, their parents'
perceptions of the parent role change and develop, becoming more challenging as the
children grow. In addition to theories, the strength-based approach are centered on
acquiring knowledge, abilities, and skills that will help families remain stable, prevent
future issues, allow parents to nurture their children's growth, and encourage the
personal growth of family members. Strength-based approach of family support
involve professionals and families collaborating to form a partnership in which
professionals and family members share responsibility for providing support. Families
are seen as active participants in their support, which is an important part of this
partnership. Then, professionals stop being "experts" who tell families what to do and
become support providers. According to Dunst, Trivette, and Johanson (1994), the
belief that (a) individuals ought to treat one another with trust, mutual respect, and an
open mind is the foundation of partnerships. b) a dedication, comprehension,
consideration, and trusting attitude; c) communication styles that place an emphasis on
sharing, transparency, and honesty; d) Things are done to help each other and solve
problems. The interdisciplinary team treats parents as colleagues and accepts them as
full members. The family will receive all pertinent information from the specialist,
including test results and reports. Clear two-way communication is used in every
conversation. According to Dunst, Trivette, and Johanson (1994), families and support
providers participate in all decisions. We propose in this study that providing
interventions and support to vulnerable families can be aided by investigating
different approaches to family support. The social service delivery philosophies,
objectives, and procedures have undergone a significant transformation thanks to the
family support movement. These six guiding principles, which actually have their
origins in the 1960s civil rights movement, define these novel approaches: a) The
delivery of family support services must be based on a strengths-based development
approach; (Thompson, Dunst, Trivette, et al., 1994; 1989, Weissbourd and Kagan); b)
Families and providers of services must cooperate (Dunst and Paget, 1991; Johanson,
Dunst, Trivette, and others, 1994; 1981; Rappaport); c) Family-centered and family-
oriented support services are required; ( 1994; Dunst & C. Trivette); d) Support
services ought to be tailored to each child and family (Dokecki & Heflinger, 1989;
Karp, 1996). (e) According to Weissbourd & c. Kagan (1989), family support services
must be broad and comprehensive. f) Instead of focusing on individual changes,
outcomes should be measured in terms of improvements in family functioning and
quality of life (Weissbourd & Kagan, 1989; 1983 (Zigler & Berman).

METHOD

This chapter contained the Research Design, Research Participants, Research

Instruments, Data Collection Procedure, Data Analysis, Trustworthiness of the study,
and Ethical Considerations.

Research Design

This study is a qualitative descriptive method of phenomenological

interviewing individuals. Phenomenology is concerned with the study of human
perceptions of events and the manifestation of actual events in the real world
(Neubauer, 2019). The experience of the participants in the study is relived and
continued profound into their minds, distinguishing the experiences as depicted by the
participant through lengthy discussions (Reece & Campbell, 2011). Through this
method, the participants discussed their challenges in seeking social welfare for their
children with special needs.

The researchers will use a phenomenological approach that typically involves

conducting in-depth interviews or focus groups with the participant, and analyzing the
data collected through a process called phenomenological reduction, which involves
identifying and describing the essential feature of the phenomenon.

Research Participants
 The participants in this study will be a minimum of seven (7) to fourteen (14)
parents seeking social services for their children with special needs within the
community in the Davao Region. The researchers ensure enough knowledge about the
study’s purpose to appropriately select these participants because the experiences of
the parents are the sources to essentially answer the questions comprehensively.

Research instruments

The researcher will use interviewing as a qualitative instrument to know the

challenges of parents seeking social services for their children with special needs. The
researcher intends to conduct online interviews to collect information from the
participants by asking them a few questions in a proper way. The choice of the
communication platform, whether it be Google Meet, Messenger, or Zoom, will be
based on the participants’ ease of access. The researcher will schedule the interviews
according to the participant’s availability, and communication may also take place
through email or messenger if necessary.

Data Collection Procedures

The following were the steps followed in the gathering of data.

The researchers primarily seek permission from the Dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences Education (CASE) to conduct the study. The researchers will formally
present a letter to the participants to ask their permission to conduct the study. It also
gives awareness for our participants to feel secure whatever they answer about the
things that we have in our research interview.

Upon approval of the letter, the researchers administered the survey questionnaires to
the participants. The distribution will be online following the protocol; also, it is done
to ensure data collection with the consideration of the time availability of the
respondents. After interviewing the data, the researcher gathered and collected, the
administered instruments will be recorded, transcribed, and analyzed.

Data Analysis
 Thematic analysis will be used in analyzing the data in this study; it is the
process of analysis wherein it strives to find out something about people’s views,
opinions, knowledge, experiences, or values from a set of qualitative data (Caulfield,
2019). In this study, the researchers used thematic analysis to gain more understanding
of the challenges of parents seeking social services for their children with special
needs. A thematic analysis aims to find themes or relevant or intriguing patterns in
data, and then utilize these themes to address the study or say something about a
problem. As a result, the researchers will be able to produce patterns relevant to the
study for later analysis and will enlist the help of the data analyst to conduct a detailed
analysis of the collected data.

Trustworthiness of the study

Creating, establishing, designing, and implementing a research study there are

several key steps and processes to do an integrated and unity study. In making this
study we ensure first that our topic is credible and visible to our course and it is
validated by the panel, the research question is written and the focus of the study is
provided in the question, and the questions are appropriate to the study.
Trustworthiness consists of the following components: (a) Credibility; (b)
transferability; (c) dependability; and (d) conformability (Devault, 2019).

Ethical Consideration

This study utilized human participants and one on one interviews about the
challenges of parents seeking social services for their children with special needs. The
survey letters, forms, and the question is drafted and delivered briefly to prevent
conflict among the participants, agency, school, and researchers. We asked permission
from the Head of the agency before conducting the interview using the constructed
letter for a survey that has a sign of our research subject teacher. The respondents
actively and cooperatively answer the question during the interview, they are open to
all information that the researcher wants to get from the respondents. It is important to
do this research because it can give knowledge, idea, and supporting information to
the future researcher. The participants will be assured of the confidentiality of their
personal information and statements by the researchers. Lastly, if the participants do
not feel safe during the study, they have the freedom to withdraw.

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