“Tugiisikuteenus annab sellise lootuskiire, et on olemas abi” - vanemad räägivad oma kogemusest tugiisikuteenusega

Abstract

“Support person service gives hope that there’s help”- parents talk about their experience with support person service The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to understand parents’ experience with support person service based on the parents who get their service needs filled by the Estonian Agrenska Foundation. Understanding parents' experiences with support person services is important to provide practical guidance to service providers and the state. To understand parents’ experience and their thoughts, I prepared 4 research questions: 1. What is the support person service for parents? 2. How was parents’ experience with getting the service? 3. What do parents talk about their experiences with the support person service? 4. What are parents’ suggestions for the development of the service? The thesis’ literature overview section gives the reader a short understanding of what it is like to live with a disabled child and how the state helps families in need. One of the services aimed at alleviating the situation of families in need is the support person service. In order to collect data about parents’ experiences I conducted 5 interviews. With the interviews it was found that the support person service gives hope for parents. In a situation where the working life of the parents is affected by a disabled child, the support person service helps them in the labor market by taking care of their child whilst the parent works. It is the main reason why support person service is important for the parents. It also gives parents free time for themself or their other children. Although getting the service and finding a service provider was easy for parents, the process from there was not without difficulties. The main difficulty for parents is the frequent change of the support worker, which can be hard for both the parent and the child. The constant need to explain and reapply for services and disability is also a problem for the parents. Putting aside the problems, the parents think that the organization of the service is good and they are very satisfied with the service provider and the support workers.