The social and economic situation of families with handicapped children

Handicapped children represent one of the most acute problems of our society. As of the end of 1999, in the country as a whole, bodies of social protection of the population had on their books 592,200 handicapped children age sixteen or under,1 adding up to 1.7 percent of the total number of children and adolescents. The increase in the number of handicapped children is cause for alarm: in 1980 there were 16.5 for every 10,000 healthy children; in 1999 the figure had risen to 203.8 [1]. It needs to be kept in mind, moreover, that "handicapped status is designated only for one out of every five or six children (in 19.0 percent of cases) of those who suffer from chronic impairments of health" [2].