Abstract
SUMMARY This research has examined how the group counselling has affected the level of depression and family structure of the parents whose children are Down's Syndrome. Samples of the research are the families of the children with Down's Syndrome, who had several visits from the 3rd and 4th grade students of psychological counselling and guidance, according to the home visiting programme which is due to the protocol that was signed between Marmara University Educational Sciences Department and The Association of Mentally Handicapped Supporters. All the members of the research were volunteer and be appropriate to some criterions. The experimental and the control group were formed from 18 people including eight mothers and a father. The treatment lasted for 9 weeks and each meeting lasted for 2 hours. In order to investigate the group counselling affects the level of depression and family structure of families; each parent, regardless of what group they belong to is applied `Beck Depression Inventory` and `Family Structure Evaluation Apparatus` at the beginning and at the end of the process assistance. During the period, the family members of the experimental group have joined psychological group counselling process once a week for 2 hours. Within this period, the parents expressing themselves in front of the group members, have realised that they were not the only ones who were having these problems and they felt that they were not alone. As they had an interaction with the other family members, they experienced the ways of effective communication with their children and families around them. They were given a chance to share their feelings, experiences and thoughts which ingave them the opportunity to relieve. During this period control group did not receive group counselling. At the end of the treatment of group counselling, the scores that experimental and control groups got from BDI and FSEA compared. There was no significant difference between the pre and post measurements of groups. But test of FSEA on the experimental group showed a.05 change except one subtest, whereas the BDI scores stayed the same. As a consequence, the findings have been discussed in terms of group counselling and the parents who have disabled children are provided with necessary suggestion in order to render a better psychological support. IV
