Presence of Stress in Families of People with Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Families with people with intellectual disabilities often face certain problems and difficulties related to their mental health. They are often exposed to different levels of stress, feelings of isolation, shame, sadness, depression, helplessness and scarce physical, family and social functionality, which usually arise from the need for the care they should provide to the person with an intellectual disability. These families usually have a smaller network of formal, informal and instrumental support and this is the reason for their greater social isolation compared to other families. The purpose of this research is to determine the level of stress among family members who have a person with an intellectual disability. The level of stress will be determined in relation to the gender, age, ethnicity, level of education and place of residence of the family members. The obtained results of the research will represent a good basis for giving appropriate recommendations to the relevant institutions for developing of appropriate programs for mental health care of families who have a person with an intellectual disability. The research will cover the members of families who have a person with an intellectual disability, who are users of the daycare services for people with an intellectual disability from the Republic Center for support of people with an intellectual disability Poraka - Skopje and the rehabilitation and reintegration service for people with intellectual disability Poraka Nasha- Kumanovo. The research will use a stress index questionnaire, the Parenting Stress Index- Short Form (PSI-SF) which is designed to assess the magnitude of stress in the parent-child system, the fourth edition of the popular PSI is a 120-item inventory that focuses on three main domains of stress: child characteristics, parent characteristics, and situational/demographic life stress.