Ondersteuning van oudere partners van mensen met ASS

Abstract

Th e Dutch Guideline Autism states that besides support for clients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) their next of kin also need support in their need for knowledge, ways to cope with the client and to take good emotional care of themselves. Besides support for clients, we offer a group module for partners. This module was developed by the Dutch Organization for Autism and the department autism of the mental health institution in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, and has been adjusted for elderly patients. We explored the effects of the partner module in a pre-post-follow-up design. After participating the partners reported more knowledge on ASD, better recognition of ASD in their partner, recognition in other partners, less psychiatric distress and improvement in self-esteem. An adjustment of the module is proposed in the discussion.