Emotional well-being in siblings of people with disabilities: A guide for parents and siblings

Generating emotional well-being in the siblings of people with disabilities is just as important as providing physical and mental care for the person with a disability. From the moment of diagnosis or acquisition of a disability, parents generally dedicate most of their time and focus all their attention on the child with a disability. Consequently, the dynamics of the nuclear family begin to be constituted around this reality, which would promote, in the siblings of people with disabilities, the emergence of confused or contradictory emotions and feelings, which, if ignored, would generate great emotional discomfort for the rest of their lives. Based on my professional experience, I developed this guide to raise awareness about the importance of emotional health in the siblings of people with disabilities, and also to guide the members of the family on how to approach this issue, which is usually not frequently debated both in the family environment and in the professional spaces of education and health.