Family and quality of life: key elements in intervention in children with cerebral palsy

Modern thinking about children's health, as embodied in the framework of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health - Child and Youth Version, requires that we be attentive to the 'context' of children's lives, namely their families and the well-being of their families. Family-centred services provide both a guide to the 'processes' of service by service providers and measurable evidence-based outcomes that link better 'processes' with better parental 'outcomes'. This brief paper provides an overview of these topics, arguing that the themes we address in services, and the way we do that, can have important effects on families, and by extension, on their children.