FEATURE ENABLEMENT
Providing disabled parents with a place , a voice and a space to belong
Sarah Fay has combined her occupational therapy background and her lived experience of complex needs to set up a charity that aims to understand , support and address the unique challenges of parenting with physical disability and other complex conditions
I
am an occupational therapist and disabled parent and I have combined my occupational therapy background and lived experience of complex needs to navigate my own parenting journey to set up a registered charity , Enabled2Parent . My experience showed me that I received the best , most holistic care when I was willing to engage with professionals from many different agencies with honesty and openness . This helped me to create and maintain positive relationships with professionals , who then helped me create and maintain a safe environment for my daughter .
Enabled2Parent has been founded and designed as a service specifically for disabled mothers and fathers and those parents with additional support needs . I believe it is the first organisation of its kind that can provide clinical as well as social and functional assessments in relation to the life role of being a parent .
Townsend ( 2002 ) defines a life role as a ‘ culturally defined pattern of occupation that reflects particular routines and habits ’. The charity is there to protect and represent the interests of its service users and to promote and increase understanding of the specific life role of parenting for disabled mothers and fathers . The scope of practice extends from planning for a baby right though pregnancy and beyond .
The underlying philosophy of the charity is that of enablement .
According to Townsend ( 2002 ), enabling is the processes of facilitating , guiding , coaching , educating , prompting , listening , reflecting , encouraging or otherwise collaborating with people so that individuals , groups , agencies or
34 OTnews November 2021
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