Hamnar syskon till personer med funktionshinder i skymundan? : En kvalitativ studie där stöd till syskon studeras

Sammanfattning: Siblings of persons with disabilities tend to be sidelined and not get the same attention in the same amount as the child with the disability gets, both by the parents and the society. Previous research in this area is limited and siblings of people with disabilities and their experiences of support needs to be explored. The purpose of this paper is to learn about support for siblings of people with disabilities in terms of both adult siblings own experiences from his childhood and from practitioners experience. Six qualitative interviews with four adult siblings of people with disabilities and two professionals were interviewed. Systems Theory and Bronfenbrenners ecological model has provided the theoretical basis for the essay. The results show that all siblings have been, in different ways and to varying degrees, influenced by growing up with a sibling with disabilities. For example, the results show that knowledge of the disability, personal time with parents and to meet others in a similar situation was important. About experiences of support siblings had different thoughts about what was good and bad, and what support they had lacked. The professionals experience of the siblings was largely the same as the siblings descriptions. Keywords: Sibling, disability, childhood, support, affect