Call for extended leave, support for parents of disabled children

Parents of children with disabilities should be granted extended maternity leave and more community-based support, disability rights advocate Felicia Inniss has urged.

Speaking at the St James Ideas Forum town hall meeting at the Frederick Smith Secondary School on Wednesday night, she presented several proposals to improve the lives of families raising children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Inniss, who also welcomed the introduction of paternity leave, said there needed to be a greater focus on challenges faced by parents of children born with disabilities. 

“My idea is that when a female or a family has a child with a disability, if the disability is known at birth, like a severe intellectual impairment, that these parents be given extended maternity [and paternity] leave,” she said.

She explained that traditional leave often fails parents of children with complex needs. 

“You would leave work, and you intend to go back to work in about six weeks or three months. When you have a child with a disability, that tosses that on its head altogether. It is not only about the child; it then becomes about you. You need psychological support. You need the extended support because if you’re not going back to work, if it is a single-parent household, there’s no money coming in,” Inniss said.

“I’m humbly pleading tonight that we take a look at how we treat parents who have children with intellectual impairment, disabilities—extend their maternity leave, support them through the process because it impacts on you mentally.”

Inniss pointed out that for many parents, returning to work in a few weeks was often not feasible.