Cramm Heidi, Smith Garth, Samdup Dawa, Williams Ashley, Rühland Lucia
School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Department of Pediatrics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Paediatr Child Health. 2019 Nov;24(7):478-484. doi: 10.1093/pch/pxy179. Epub 2019 Mar 11.
Most military families experience mandatory relocation, or posting, several times during the military career. For Canadian military families who must access provincial or territorial health care systems, maintaining reasonable continuity of care is a persistent issue. Such challenges may be amplified when a child in a military family has special needs within the health and educational systems.
The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a better understanding of Canadian Armed Forces families' experiences in navigating health care systems on behalf of a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the context of mandatory relocation.
Parents of children with ASD, where at least one parent serves in the Canadian Armed Forces and had faced military-related relocation, were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed thematically.
Twelve participants represented 12 families and 15 children with ASD. Participants discussed two primary themes. (1) High mobility inherent in the military lifestyle can create disruptions and discontinuities to service, including delays in diagnosis or intervention, losses and gains in available services determined by the direction of posting, and the need to start health care access processes over again when relocating. (2) Navigating health systems for children with ASD creates personal stress and frustration related to relocating, and has career implications for both parents.
Military-related relocation can create significant disruption in access to health and educational services for Canadian military families who have a child with ASD, and take a personal toll on these families.
大多数军人家庭在其军旅生涯中会经历多次强制调动或派驻。对于那些必须使用省级或地区医疗保健系统的加拿大军人家庭来说，维持合理的医疗连续性一直是个问题。当军人家庭中的孩子在医疗和教育系统中有特殊需求时，这些挑战可能会加剧。
这项定性研究的目的是更好地了解加拿大武装部队家庭在强制调动背景下，为患有自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的孩子安排医疗保健系统时的经历。
招募了患有ASD孩子的父母，其中至少有一位父母在加拿大武装部队服役且面临与军事相关的调动。对访谈进行录音、逐字转录并进行主题分析。
12名参与者代表了12个家庭和15名患有ASD的孩子。参与者讨论了两个主要主题。（1）军事生活方式固有的高流动性会导致服务中断和不连续，包括诊断或干预的延迟、因派驻方向而导致的可用服务的增减，以及搬迁时需要重新开始医疗保健接入流程。（2）为患有ASD的孩子安排医疗系统会给搬迁带来个人压力和挫折感，并对父母双方的职业产生影响。
与军事相关的调动会给有ASD孩子的加拿大军人家庭的医疗和教育服务获取造成重大干扰，并给这些家庭带来个人负担。
