Counselling parents of children who have intellectual disabilities

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Abstract
With some exceptions, the services provided for the care of young children with intellectual impairment focus predominantly upon the health and abilities of the child, thereby neglecting more general aspects of the child's psychological functioning and the family situation as a whole. Although the growing trend is to train parents in the use of behavioural methods, this paper argues the need to provide more general counselling facilities for all families with disabled children. Three basic frameworks are described which are considered necessary for professionals engaged in counselling. These relate to the understanding of the parent‐professional relationship, the psychological functioning of individuals and the process of counselling. The paper concludes with a description of an ongoing research project to evaluate the effectiveness of providing families with counsellors (Parent Advisers), whose training is briefly detailed.