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This study examines parental perceptions of the importance of grandparents as providers of routine care to children with disabilities and the impact of such assistance on parental well-being. Data are drawn from a survey and follow-up interactive interviews. Findings of the survey indicate that: 1) grandparents are a common source of weekly assistance-significantly more common than other relatives or friends and neighbors; 2) where grandparents participate, the number of other sources of support is also higher; and 3) help from grandparents has a positive, while the number of other sources of help has a negative, relationship to parental ability to maintain a positive emotional outlook and to avoid physical exhaustion. Findings of the interactive interviews suggest that: 1) grandparent participation can promote pride and "normalized attitudes" by helping grandparents to get to know the child with a disability on an intimate basis; 2) when grandparents do not participate, parents may feel the need to manage the information given to and the emotional responses experienced by grandparents who have not had a chance to get know and love the child through frequent, direct contact; and 3) parents are very concerned that if grandparents themselves begin to need help due to increased age and disability, they will not ask for it because of fear that parents are already overburdened by the unusual demands of their parenting roles.

Little is known about maternal satisfaction with clinics that provide physical, occupational and speech therapy services to chronically impaired children. Because of the frequency and duration of contact between mothers and therapy clinics, this represents a significant gap in the literature on satisfaction with health care providers. This study uses a modified labelling approach to the issue of interactions between the own, the wise and the others as a framework for understanding such satisfaction. Data are drawn from a survey of 81 mothers of children regularly treated at one of three paediatric therapy clinics, and from extensive interactive interviews with seven of these mothers. Findings suggest that satisfaction with therapy clinics is a complex phenomenon that is affected by the relationships among mothers, the wise and others, in a number of ways: (1) Mothers who find it easier to interact with wise individuals than with others are more satisfied with the therapy clinic; (2) The perceived quality of the social environment is more important to overall satisfaction among mothers who do not prefer interactions with wise individuals than among those who do; (3) Among mothers who do not prefer interactions with wise individuals, perceived stigma is inversely related to overall satisfaction and moderates the relationship between the social environment and satisfaction. The greater the degree of perceived stigma, the more important the social environment of the clinic is to overall satisfaction among mothers who do not prefer interactions with the wise.