Children with a chronic illness or disability can encounter many difficulties throughout their lifetimes. Respite care through therapeutic summer day camps is a service used to relieve the physical and mental strains placed on caregivers while also creating unique opportunities to benefit the child. There are gaps in the literature surrounding therapeutic camps and their benefit for the family and their ability to manage the child’s special health care need. The purpose of this study is to determine how respite care in the form of a therapeutic summer day camp for children with special needs impacts a family’s ability to manage their child’s special health care needs within their family. This research study used mixed methodology combining quantitative data collection through pre- and postsurveys and qualitative data collection through interviews that work to answer questions relating to the effects of a therapeutic summer day camp on parents’ perspective and management of their child’s condition. The theoretical framework used to guide the study is the Family Management Style Framework. Twenty-two parents completed The Family Management Measure that was administered prior to and at the conclusion of an 8-week therapeutic summer day camp program. Qualitative interviews with 11 parents helped to better understand specific interventions and experiences of the therapeutic camp that benefitted their child and family. Although the quantitative analysis did not yield statistically significant changes in the family’s ability to manage their child’s condition as a result of attendance at the camp, the qualitative interviews demonstrated robust evidence that the camp provided meaningful experiences for the campers and parents while alleviating stress within the family. Themes that emerged from the interviews include: (1) Family-Child themes of loss of normalcy, relationships affected, increased stress, family adaptations, and love for the child; (2) Camp-Child themes of meets individual needs, creates happiness, and behavior changes; and (3) Camp-Parent themes of improved perception of the child, decreased stress, parent involvement with staff, and need for specific environment at camp. Implications of the results are discussed, along with recommendations for future research.

Bakgrund: Multipel skleros (MS) är en autoimmun inflammatorisk sjukdom med individuellt varierande symtom. Varje person med MS har ett eget omvårdnadsbehov beroende på vilka symtom hen upplever. Personen lever med sjukdomen livet ut och nya symtom uppkommer regelbundet. Syfte: Litteraturstudiens syfte var att beskriva hur personer med MS upplever att symtom och omvårdnadsbehov påverkar deras vardagliga liv samt att beskriva de inkluderade artiklarnas urvalsmetod. Metod: Beskrivande litteraturstudie. Artiklar söktes fram via databasen Cinahl samt via manuella sökningar. Totalt framkom 11 vetenskapliga artiklar, 10 kvalitativa och 1 med mixad metod, som inkluderades i litteraturstudien. Huvudresultat: Symtom och omvårdnadsbehov påverkade personerna med MS vardagliga liv och autonomi. Symtomen som hade störst påverkan var uttalad trötthet och problem med rörelseförmågan, men alla symtom påverkade personerna på ett eller annat sätt. Ingen aspekt av vardagen var opåverkad och utöver symtomen var omvårdnadsbehovet ett hinder för att personerna skulle kunna gör det de ville. Energibristen och att vara beroende av andra för att vardagen skulle gå ihop var ett problem. Personerna hade en stark vilja att göra mer än de klarade av och de ville inte känna sig handikappade. Personerna prioriterade det viktigaste i livet. Det framkom att artiklarna valt liknande urvalsmetoder för att svara på deras syfte. Slutsats: MS är en sjukdom vars symtom och omvårdnadsbehov påverkar personens vardagliga liv på många sätt, framförallt förmågan att leva som tidigare och personens känsla av autonomi. Att göra de aktiviteter som önskades var svårt och personerna blev tvungna att prioritera det som var viktigast för dem. / Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune inflammatory disease with individually  varying symptoms. Each person with MS has their own care needs, depending on which symptoms he/she experiences. The person live with MS the rest of his/her life and new symptoms occur regularly. Aim: The purpose of this study was to describe how people with MS experience how symptoms and care needs affect their everyday lives and to describe the included articles sample method. Method: Descriptive literature review. Articles were searched out through Cinahl and via manual searches. A total of 11 scientific articles emerged, 10 qualitative and 1 withmixed approach, which was included in the study. Main results: The MS disease symptoms and care needs had a great impact on people's everyday lives and autonomy . The symptoms that had the greatest impact was fatigue and problems with the ability to move. No aspect of daily life was unaffected and in addition to the symptoms, care needs was an obstacle. The lack of energy and to be reliant on others so the daily life would work, was a big problem. They had a strongdesire to do more than they could and they did not want to feel disabled. It appeared that the articles chosen similar selection methods to answer their aim. Conclusion: MS is a disease that affects the person's everyday life in many ways, above all, the ability to live as before and the feeling of autonomy. They had to prioritize what was most important to them.