Spiritual Counseling and Care Needs of Parents of Children Diagnosed with Esophageal Atresia and Tracheoesophageal Fistula

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe the spiritual counseling and guidance needs of parents whose children have been diagnosed with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula. In the general introduction part, it has been mentioned that the study has been conducted by using documentation methods and techniques based on national and international literature review. In the article, esopha-geal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula disease was defined firstly, the types of esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula were discus-sed, and visuals were included in order to enhance the comprehen-sibility of the subject. Then, treatment methods for esophageal atre-sia-tracheoesophageal fistula disease have been discussed. First, the embryology and then etiology of the aforementioned disease have been included, and a general descriptive framework regarding esop-hageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula has been drawn. After that, a series of psychosocial problems such as disunity with the chan-ging daily life routines, the feeling of being a bad parent, social isola-tion, low social value, and defenselessness experienced by the pa-rents of children who have been diagnosed with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula have been underlined. It has been menti-oned that the parents of children diagnosed with esophageal atre-sia-tracheoesophageal fistula have certain needs such as learning basic care and first-aid for their children, economic and social sup-port in order to overcome the current situation, and spiritual coun-seling in terms of coping with the problem psychologically. In the article, after explaining what religious coping is, religious attachment and religious coping needs of the parents whose children have been diagnosed with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula have been analyzed. Then, attention has been drawn to the importance of spiritual counseling themes such as a search for meaning, prayer and worship, submission, and fate in the psychological rehabilita-tion of the parents of children diagnosed with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula. In the section on the search for meaning, the concept was explained, and then, it was associated with the di-sease. The need for psycho-educational content to be prepared within the scope of spiritual counseling in the psychological rehabili-tation of the parents whose children have been diagnosed with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula has been demonstrated. A special emphasis has been placed on prayer and worship in the article, and after a definition of submission and fate has been given, their therapeutic property in spiritual counseling has been discussed. It has been determined in the article that the parents whose children have been born with esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula disease experience difficulty in making sense of and explaining esophageal atresia-tracheoesophageal fistula, life, and the self, and it has been concluded that these parents' needs for spiritual counse-ling have been ignored, and that they are in need of spiritual coun-seling and guidance rehabilitation.