The child may remain most or part of the time with the parents and is cared for in a group or cottage home intermittently. This makes transfer for increasing intervals, if suitable, more attractive for parents, while they adjust to the coping problems. Periods of respite are often critical to maintain psychologic and physical capacities of the parents. As their ages increase and their own strength diminishes, their sons and daughters become integrated into the familiar alternative setting. Actuarial tables in the US show that children with severe cerebral palsy live less than 10 years on average.
Canadian experience shows considerably longer life expectancy.
It appears that Canadian caregivers have available to them better resources more frequently. Cost is certainly a factor. Born almost anywhere else, he wouldn't have had a chance. There are thousands of children who die each day because they lack such basics as clean water and food. In a humane society such families are being helped by all.