Examining the experiences of a short break scheme amongst adolescents with disabilities (service users) and their parents

The present research explored the impact of local short break scheme on the strengths and difficulties of disabled adolescents and their parents. At the end of the scheme disabled children (N=11) took part in semi-structured interviews to evaluate their experiences of the scheme. Data was also collected from their parents (N=7), who completed questionnaires measuring their strengths and difficulties (SDQ, Goodman, 2001) and levels of parental stress (PSI, Abdin, 1995). The findings highlighted that short break schemes can have numerous beneficial effects on disabled adolescent’s health, development and wellbeing. Moreover, the findings suggest that these potential benefits extend beyond the scheme participants to their parents. Finally, areas for future developments emerged, including: funding for more resources, development of young people’s skills, implementing more activities, provide a longer scheme and most significantly the need to develop young adult short break schemes to help aid the transition into adulthood for those from 18 years of age.