title: [Mothers of visually impaired children: difficult and easy aspects faced in care].
abstract: This study aimed to identify the difficult and easy aspects faced by mothers of visually impaired (VI) children in their care. It is a descriptive qualitative study, developed in the second semester of 2011, with ten mothers of children with visual impairment from an Educational Center for the Visually Impaired located in southern Brazil. Data were collected by means of semistructured interviews and submitted to thematic content analysis. The identified difficulties were the lack of knowledge regarding the disease and how to take care of the child, the lack of access to health services, overload generated by the dependence of the child and lack of support and prejudice within their own family. The easy aspects involved the desire for the child's healthy development the chance of being in touch with qualified professionals for their education, and the contact with other VI children. Therefore, it is important to qualify the family for the care of VI children so as to ensure the development of skills and competencies enabling them to live with quality.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, Rio Grande/RS/Brasil.
authors.forename: Aline Campelo
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Pintanel
authors.forename: Giovana Calcagno
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Daiani Modernel
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Xavier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002648:Child; D002654:Child Care; D019988:Children with Disabilities; D060329:Education of Persons with Visual Disabilities / Q000458:organization & administration; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011788:Quality of Life; D019987:Persons with Visual Disabilities