Relationship between Parental Psychological Support Needs and Health-related QOL and Parenting Stress toward the Construction of a Special Care Dental Setting Provides Psychological Support for Parents

<p>Previously, a parent support program was implemented through interdisciplinary efforts by special care dentistry, clinical philosophy, clinical psychology, and pediatric nursing. At that time, it was not possible to provide support to the most troubled parents or to connect to social welfare services. This time, we planned to develop a new parent support program with an interdisciplinary team that newly added experts in social welfare. We also conducted a questionnaire survey to explore the psychological support needs and mental health of parents of patients visiting special care dentistry and their background.</p><p>We investigated psychological support needs, health-related quality of life and parenting stress in parents of patients with special needs who visited the Special Care Dentistry Department, Osaka University Dental Hospital. The number of responding parents was 32, and the age range was 38 to 83 years (2 non-responders). There were 30 mothers, 1 father, and 1 unlisted. The children were 17 with autism spectrum disorder, 6 with intellectual disability, 6 with Down syndrome, and 3 with physical disabilities. Parents’ psychological support needs were high, and on average, health-related quality of life was low, and parenting stress tended to be strong. It was shown that parenting stress, QOL related to mental health, and high psychological support needs are interrelated. Furthermore, it was shown that the use of welfare services may reduce parents’ psychological support needs.</p><p>From the above, in parental support in special care dentistry, it is important to have a place for psychological support, including dealing with parenting stress and connecting to social welfare services. Accordingly, it is useful to build a special care dental setting as a “place” for providing psychological support to parents and discussing daily difficulties such as parenting stress, and as a “place” that connects to psychological counseling and social welfare services.</p>