Publication:
The Extra Costs Borne by Families Who Have a Child with a Disability

dc.contributor.author Graham, Sara en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2021-11-25T16:15:34Z
dc.date.available 2021-11-25T16:15:34Z
dc.date.issued 1987 en_US
dc.description.abstract In this report I describe the results of a study undertaken between June 1986 and May 1987. During this period, I visited 50 families, all of whom had a disabled child between 12 and 16 years of age. I talked to them about the costs they incurred as a consequence of their children's disabilities. The study is quite narrowly focused on economic effects, attempting to tease out only those costs which would not have been incurred had there been no disability. I have been concerned with costs of two kinds: firstly direct costs, money actually spent on meeting the child's needs, and, secondly indirect costs, the income forgone by the family because of the child's special needs and dependency. These latter hidden costs arise because the child's dependency can in some cases prevent one or even both parents from full participation in the labour force. It may also inhibit job mobility or career advancement, and thereby earnings, for those who are able to work full time. It may affect long-term earning capacity by, for example, preventing a parent from undertaking further education essential to the pursuit or enhancement of a particular career. Although this study concentrates on economic costs, parents and others caring for children with disabilities will know that the consequences are by no means exclusively economic. Neither are the economic consequences necessarily of greatest significance to family members. There are many ways in which a child's disability can affect a family. These are likely to vary considerably, according to the age of the child and his or her changing needs, and according to the circumstances of the family. There may also be social consequences, such as isolation of the family from the community, relatives and friends, or emotional consequences leading to the breakdown of marriages or the deterioration of other relationships within the family. There can be consequences for the health of family members, resulting from the physical and mental strain of caring for a disabled child. These effects are not felt equally by all family members. en_US
dc.identifier.isbn 0858236966 en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1959.4/45318
dc.language English
dc.language.iso EN en_US
dc.publisher Social Welfare Research Centre en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries Reports and Proceedings en_US
dc.rights CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 en_US
dc.rights.uri https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/au/ en_US
dc.source Legacy MARC en_US
dc.subject.other Disability en_US
dc.subject.other Cost en_US
dc.subject.other Families en_US
dc.title The Extra Costs Borne by Families Who Have a Child with a Disability en_US
dc.type Working Paper en
dcterms.accessRights open access
dspace.entity.type Publication en_US
unsw.accessRights.uri https://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
unsw.identifier.doi https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/1004
unsw.publisher.place Sydney en_US
unsw.relation.faculty Arts Design & Architecture
unsw.relation.ispartofworkingpapernumber 68 en_US
unsw.relation.originalPublicationAffiliation Graham, Sara, Social Policy Research Centre, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, UNSW en_US
unsw.relation.school Social Policy Research Centre *
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