Sibling Support Groups

Contributed by MedStar
Published: September 25, 2008

According to the organization, Sibling Support Project, six million children in the U.S. have a brother or sister with some type of developmental disability.
Siblings face different kinds of concerns than those who grow up in unaffected families. A child with a disability may take extra care and parental time, leaving some siblings to feel alone or to become resentful or jealous over the attention given to a brother or sister. Siblings may have to accompany parents on long doctor visits, therapy sessions and intervention services. When a sibling enters school, he/she may be embarrassed or concerned about how classmates will feel about a brother or sister who is “different” from other brothers and sisters. Concerns about self-acceptance may eventually be replaced by worries about how the disabled brother or sister will be accepted by his/her own peers. Then, as the children grow older, siblings may worry about having to take on responsibility of care for the disabled child.

One of the programs offered by the Sibling Support Project is called Sibshop. In some areas, the program is called SibSaturdays. A typical workshop runs from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on a Saturday. It may be a one time workshop or offered on a regular basis (weekly or monthly).

Sibshops and SibSaturdays were originally developed for children 8 to 13 who have a brother or sister with developmental disabilities. It has since been adapted for siblings of children with other special needs, like cancer, epilepsy, hearing impairments and HIV-positive status. For more information, or to locate a Sibshop near you, go to http://www.siblingsupport.org.

There are two Sibshops in the Tri-Cities region:

East Tennessee State University Sibshops
Primary Contact: Cynthia Chambers
East Tennessee State University
Box 70548
HDAL
Johnson City, TN 37614-1707
Phone: 423-439-7586

Greeneville, Tennessee Sibshops
Primary Contact: Katharine Hanger PT, DPT
Laughlin Memorial Hospital
1420 Tusculum Blvd
Greeneville, TN 37745
Phone: 1-423-972-2161