Hi

Helen Tyers and Richard Olsen are carrying out a project with the National Family and Parenting Institute looking at good practice with disabled parents.

We would like to hear from disabled parents about what has helped them in their parenting role. This could be anything from a particular service, a helpful professionial, a support group, the availability of equipment, the receipt of a benefit or direct payments, advocacy support, and so on. We would like to hear about the things that have helped you, as well as about any developments in services for disabled parents in the UK (including England, Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland). This could be particular projects directed at disabled parents, or schemes to make existing services (eg. youth clubs, after school clubs) more accessible to disabled parents.

We have an inclusive definition of disability including people with physical impairments, sensory impairments, learning difficulties, mental health impairments as well as parents with drug/alcohol problems. We also have an inclusive definition of parents including mothers, fathers, step-parents, foster and adoptive parents, and parents whose children still live with them as well as those whose children do not live with them.

To find out more about the project, and for more information about freephone and freepost ways of contacting Helen and Richard, see our web-site:

www.nfpi.org/disabledparents

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2002