Introduction
This paper seeks funding for a training program for caregivers taking care of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Equipping guardians of youngsters with ASD with special childcare skills and coping mechanisms for challenges that come with parenting these kids is paramount to the healthcare system. Having an ASD child dramatically changes the lives of the mother and other family members (Asahar et al., 2021). It sometimes changes the family’s way of living because kids with ASD require full-time attention (Al-Farsi et al., 2020). The training program will recruit parents with ASD children in the region to teach them how to handle these children. Additionally, it will equip caregivers with coping mechanisms to deal with any difficulties (Asahar et al., 2021). Further, the initiative will help these parents create groups to support each other by sharing their problems and success. This paper, therefore, provides a rationale for why everyone should support any initiative regarding parenting children with ASD.
The Rationale
ASD is a lifetime neurodevelopmental condition showed by a long-lasting ailment presenting insufficiencies in social relations and communication and constrained repetitive behavioral sequences, interests, and activities at the start of childhood. Though kids with autism present with similar behavioral features, the degree of severity varies from child to child, with some children being able to manage some aspects better than others (Al-Farsi et al., 2020). Identification of ASD can be completed as early as 18–24 months of age. During this time, autistic features can be differentiated from expected developmental typical delays or other child growth illnesses (Lord et al., 2018). The latter implies that managing children with ASD begins early in life and continues through their lives.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that globally about one in every one hundred children has autism. In the United States, the level of autism is very high such that one in every forty-four children has ASD, which translates to about 1.6% of all children in the country (Zeidan et al., 2022). Data indicate that boys are more highly diagnosed with autism than girls at 3.7% and 0.9%, respectively (Asahar et al., 2021). The latter means that many caregivers take care of children with ASD, hence the importance of equipping them with the necessary skills for effective and smooth parenting and coping with various difficulties.
Behavioral indicators of ASD usually begin when the child is between one and three years old. The signs evolve with time as the kid ages and differ in austerity with time and management practices. A baby who shows communication issues with hyperactivity might have association and mood issues as they develop into adolescents. Moreover, about 70% of babies with ASD experience a minimum of a single psychiatric disorder (Renford et al., 2020). Frequently experienced co-morbidities in these children are psychiatry and maladaptive conditions. The earlier-mentioned results in anxiety syndromes and attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), which might lead to aggression and self-destructive behaviors (Young et al., 2020). Other common issues among children with ASD include eating problems, epilepsy, and gastrointestinal conditions. The discussed issues mean that parents always have something to handle as far as the ASD children are concerned and might not have time for other things.
The diverse nature of the responsibilities experienced by parents of babies with ASD exposes them to high risks of a low quality of life (QoL). When a child is first diagnosed with ASD, parents have to acquire new skills, accept, adjust, prepare and handle new information and their child’s requirements (Asahar et al., 2021). When the child is between four and eight years old, guardians are confronted with extra co-morbidities and the baby’s augmented intensities of emotive or behavioral signs. Surveys globally have constantly revealed reduced QoL rates in caregivers of autistic kids than caregivers with normally growing babies or even guardians with offspring with other kinds of debilities (Alenazi et al., 2020; Bohadana et al., 2019; Cappe et al., 2018). Thus, it is necessary to support parents with autistic babies by equipping them with proper parenting skills and coping approaches to improve their quality of life.
Caregivers with ASD children are faced with the challenge of having to deal with the ever-changing and unpredictable spectrum of behavior and emotions. Beginning caregivers might not know how to handle the dynamic actions unless equipped with special skills to do so. Most parents will be overwhelmed by their children’s problematic behaviors to the point of burnout and, as a result, develop chronic stress (Vitale et al., 2022). Particularly parents with other kids to care for could find it a lot more challenging to cope. Additionally, many couples face marital distress that could lead to divorce as a result of having an autistic child (Schiltz & Van Hecke, 2021; Chan & Leung, 2020; Hu et al., 2019). The former might be because one spouse, especially the mother, is busy all the time taking care of the special child and therefore does not have time to spend with her partner, thus deteriorating marital relationships.
Moreover, caregivers of autistic kids have a high incidence of depression and anxiety as opposed to guardians with ordinary babies or even those with offspring with other infirmities. When a guardian has an ASD child, they have to provide their full attention to this child, which means they have to forgo their social and even working life (Asahar et al., 2021). The former makes these caregivers isolated and lonely with a specific routine, which makes their lives monotonous. The latter results in depression, as various researchers have already established in their investigations (Kütük et al., 2021; Jahan et al., 2020; Scherer et al., 2019). Further, researchers have shown high anxiety levels among caregivers of ASD children (Althiabi, 2021; Kalvin et al., 2020; Chan & Leung, 2021). The parents are always anxious about what the child might do the next moment and are never settled at any given time. These findings show a need to invest in equipping parents with ASD children with skills and coping ways for less challenging parenting.
In comparison to normally growing babies, children with neurodevelopmental conditions have a high probability of suffering from psychological. In addition, they may have somatic challenges during any change in the family setup or a disaster due to capricious alterations in their environment and adjustments to the routines they are accustomed. For instance, during the COVID-19 period, many parents with ASD children reported increased anxiety, distress, and depression levels (Ameis et al., 2020; Colizzi et al., 2020; Lim et al., 2020). The formers were because children were confused when their school and social routines were interrupted by the lockdown. Studies have confirmed that ASD kids exhibit more intense and frequent disorderly manners (Ameis et al., 2020; Colizzi et al., 2020; Lim et al., 2020). During this time, parents had to structure new activities to keep the children busy. However, it would take time before the kids could settle into the new normal leading the caregivers to develop burnout (Ueda et al., 2021). Online training would have aided the parents and their children to adapt to their new normal.
Cost Analysis
Table 1: Cost of Services to Be Offered to Caregivers in Seven Days (Fixed Cost)
Table 2: Cost to Sustain the Caregivers (Variable Cost)
Table 3: Break-Even Analysis (Overall Budget)
The above tables and chart shows a cost analysis for seven-day training for caregivers with ASD children. The program will require a neurodevelopmental specialist who will educate the parents on the expected behavior of their children and the reasons for those behaviors. Parents need to understand exactly what having an autistic child entails. The doctor will have one hour daily with the parents, and he/she will be paid $33 per hour as shown in Table 1. Additionally, the program will need a psychological counselor or therapist to train the parents on how to handle the children when they act in specific ways. Further, the therapist will tackle emotions that caregivers experience in the care process and provide them with ways in which they can deal with these emotions. The therapist will be paid $30 per hour and will take one hour each day for seven days as illustrated in Table 1.
The program will provide lunch for parents and snacks for children who might come with their parents. The initiative approximates to recruit about 20 caregivers who take care of ASD children, whether mothers or hired caregivers as indicated in Table 2. If funding is available, this program will be running on an annual basis to include new parents with ASD children. This proposal requests well-wishers or institutions to donate anything to support this training, and the total budget is 5641 as shown in Table 3; the surplus will be saved for the following year’s training.
Table 4: The Contingency Plan
If funding to execute the professional training for the parents is not acquired, then the organizers will source for a neurodevelopmental doctor and a counselor volunteers as illustrated in Table 4. The program will then be run virtually, which will only require the guardians to have internet in their houses. The specialists will make short videos on each aspect regarding ASD. The planners will sensitize caregivers on the importance of joining this program. the virtual group will them be formed and all the participants added, the educative videos will be posted on a rolling basis giving each video enough time to be accessed by the members and after attending to all comments and concerns the next video will be posted. This is the plan B for this project, which will ensure that though the program did not acquire the funding for execution, the main agenda to equip caregivers with skills and coping mechanism is achieved. However, with this mode of training, it will be difficult to assess whether the caregiver fully understand the information provided.
The Expected Benefits
This proposal advocates for this training to equip parents with proper skills and coping mechanisms to reduce the many challenges highlighted in the above section and improve the quality of life for both the children and the guardians. Past researchers from various places have proven that training can alleviate these difficulties. Haakonsen et al. (2018) found that genetic counseling training caregivers improved parental coping mechanisms. Dai et al. (2021) reported that parents who engaged in online training revealed it was helping in acquiring skills that improved children’s skills and behavior. Singh (2019) claimed that mindfulness-based positive behavior support training significantly decreased the level of stress among mothers of children with ASD. Dai et al. (2018) reported that a video parent-training initiative for parents of autistic babies improved self-efficacy in addition to the caregiver’s information on efficient parenting approaches. Owen et al. (2020) demonstrated that guardian-child interaction therapy for kids with ASD resulted in enhanced socialization, adaptability, positive affect and reduced disorderly actions.
The above studies affirm that training for caregivers with ASD children is essential because it improves the lives of the parents and the children. The training has to be done continuously since there are newly diagnosed children all the time, and children’s behavior continues to change with age (Asahar et al., 2021). Each age group of these children comes with new challenges for the parents; hence, they need continued support.
Conclusion
Conclusively, literature has shown that parents with ASD experience various challenges affecting their mental well-being and their general quality of life. Studies have equally shown that training parents on skills and coping mechanisms can help improve the children’s and their caregivers’ lives. Hence, this proposal intends to pass this vital message on the importance of having educative programs for these parents, at least to support them in this journey.
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