The United Nations (UN) declared 3 December as the "International Day of Persons with Disabilities". For attention to the importance of this day, SOYSAL ACAR started her speech by stating that the concept of disability is used as a 'person with special needs' today.
SOYSAL ACAR stated that the main problem experienced in the treatment of individuals with special needs is that the processes of psychological evaluation, psychological intervention and psychological resilience are not used in a timely and effective manner. What needs to be done to support families in this regard; informing the family about the facts of their child's situation, helping the family with psychotherapy programs for understanding their own and their children's problems and providing educational programs for families to improve their children's skills.
She continued her speech by saying, "Parents who learn that they will have a child with special needs often lose the image of a healthy child they expect to have and shortly after the birth of the baby they experience a grieving process accompanied by intense disappointment." SOYSAL ACAR stated that from the moment the family learns about the diagnosis, they may experience many psychological problems in daily life related to the development, care and raising of their children, behavioral and emotional problems, and education. Then, she added to her words that the developmental stages of the child should be evaluated regularly in a way to ensure a detailed, up-to-date, realistic goal and purpose unity in the postnatal period.
SOYSAL ACAR stated that in the development follow-up of children with special needs, it is necessary to evaluate not only the child's progress in the special education process, but also from all areas. At this point, she stated that it is important for the development follow-up to be able to meet the needs of the family and the child. She continued her words by saying, “After the families understand and comprehend the conditions they are in, they can determine realistic strategies in the second stage”. SOYSAL ACAR stated that when they put some of these strategies families can have determined into practice in their lives. In the last stage, she stated that they should evaluate the results of the strategies they implemented and to what extent they achieved their goals. And if they could not, they should investigate the reasons for this.
Finally, SOYSAL ACAR explains the points that experts should pay attention to in their consultancy processes; It is expressed as cooperation with the whole family in solving the problem by knowing the needs and values of the family well, evaluating the previous counseling processes, spreading the counseling to all developmental periods that may be needed, and considering the family as a whole with all its members. Concluding her speech by emphasizing the importance of getting support for the participation of individuals with special needs and their families in social life, SOYSAL ACAR answered the questions from the participants. The event ended with the contributions of Prof. Dr. Ebru KOLSAL.
