'Oh, those therapists will become your best friends': maternal satisfaction with clinics providing physical, occupational and speech therapy servicesto children with disabilities

Little is known about maternal satisfaction with clinics that provide physi cal, occupational and speech therapy services to chronically impaired child ren. Because of the frequency and duration of contact between mothers and t herapy clinics, this represents a significant gap in the literature on sati sfaction with health care providers, This study uses a modified labelling a pproach to the issue of interactions between the own, the wise and the othe rs as a framework for understanding such satisfaction. Data are drawn from a survey of 81 mothers of children regularly treated at one of three paedia tric therapy clinics, and from extensive interactive interviews with seven of these mothers. Findings suggest that satisfaction with therapy clinics i s a complex phenomenon that is affected by the relationships among mothers, the wise and others, in a number of ways: (1) Mothers who find it easier t o interact with wise individuals than with others are more satisfied with t he therapy clinic; (2) The perceived quality of the social environment is m ore important to overall satisfaction among mothers who do not prefer inter actions with wise individuals than among those who do; (3) Among mothers wh o do not prefer interactions with wise individuals, perceived stigma is inv ersely related to overall satisfaction and moderates the relationship betwe en the social environment and satisfaction. The greater the degree of perce ived stigma, the more important the social environment of the clinic is to overall satisfaction among mothers who do not prefer interactions with the wise.