In Taichung City, there are about 750 kids under 18 years old who suffer from multiple disabilities. To help these kids and their families, the Social Affairs Bureau of Taichung City Government held a parenting education seminar at the National Taichung School for the Deaf on March 25. Information about family care, social welfare resources, employment and so on was provided. It was hoped that those family caregivers can increase chances of communication with each other to share ideas and experiences.

Multiple disabilities refer to the suffering of two (or more) obstacles at the same time, such as a person having visual and hearing impairments simultaneously, Social Affairs Bureau pointed out. In such cases, family caregivers are often the most important supporters to these kids, but they themselves often encounter pressure and psychological problems in the child rearing process, especially when their kids grow up and need to face the crucial moments of job seeking.

Chen Kun-huang (陳坤皇), Deputy Director-general of Social Affairs Bureau, said “Taichung City Government has formulated a program to assist those families with kids under 18 years old who suffer from multiple disabilities. The program is funded by the National Lottery Distribution Fund. Our professional social workers will call and/or interview those families, invite them to take part in parenting education programs and/or summer after-school activities, assess their problems and needs, offer them with social-welfare advice and link them to the needed resources. We hope to provide them with adequate support.”

This seminar attracted many parents, most of whom brought their kids along. They shared experience and ideas in taking care of their disabled kids and cheer for each other in a relaxed and warm atmosphere. The Social Affairs Bureau gave out flash drives containing information about disability welfare resources and has planned to print out the contents into brochures in the future to make it easy for those families to access to necessary information.