‘Meet and Greet’: Children with Disabilities’ Participatory Rights in the Assessment Process of Respite Care

Abstract

This article scrutinizes children’s participation concerning the assessment process of respite care in Sweden. It is qualitative study based on 82 documents of application of respite care and a group interview with social workers. We use the participation model of Shier, which describes extent of participation as well as the mandate of the organization. Social workers try to inform the children and meet them. They also seek approval of respite care. However, children who don’t use spoken language and children who are seen as immature are not given adequate support to enable them to speak their voices. Besides, the participation is often restricted to say yes to respite care. There are hardly any traces of children’s reasons for being at respite care. This means an absence of knowledge concerning children’s views upon their own needs and problems.

Keywords

• respite care
• child
• participation
• assessment process
• disability