THE ROLE OF SUPPORT GROUPS IN THE COOPERATION BETWEEN PARENTS OF PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND PROFESSIONAL STAFF

Introduction: One of the ways of building and developing a better cooperative relationship between parents of people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities and professional staff is the inclusion of parents in support groups for parents and staff in support groups for staff. Goal: To examine the correlation of the level of cooperative relationship between the parents of people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities and professional staff with the inclusion of parents in support groups for parents and staff in support groups for staff. Methodology: Respondents: parents (296) of people with severe and profound learning disabilities and staff (298) in five centres across Slovenia; Methods: descriptive statistics, test of homogeneity, the rankit method, one-way analysis of variance; Procedures: survey questionnaires for parents and staff. The data was processed using SPSS software for personal computers. Results: The difference between the variances of the groups (parent) found is statistically significant (F = 6.16; p = 0.01). Staff included in support groups have a significantly lower level of cooperative relationship with parents (f=10; M = - 0.12) than staff not included in these groups (f = 191; M = 0.04). Conclusion:In contrast to theoretical findings the results indicated less successful cooperation for professional staff included in support groups. The results furthermore did not confirm any differences in the cooperative relationship of parents included in support groups and those who are not. We suggest an in-depth analysis of the workings of support groups.