**5. Conclusion**

**4.** Despite the fact that the participants were reassured that data would be kept confiden‐

**5.** There was no official follow-up, although the researcher had informal contacts with the participants and was informed that many of them continued to follow the partnership

**6.** There are many other factors that could have affected the collaboration between parents of children with autism spectrum disorders and mental health professionals that are re‐ lated to external factors (e.g., financial crisis), internal factors (e.g., depressive mood) or child-specific factors (e.g., severity of the autism spectrum disorders) that were not ex‐

This research confirmed the findings of previous studies [77, 104, 147] that the relationship between parents of children with autism spectrum disorders and mental health professio‐ nals is quite challenging. However, the aim was not just to identify the existing problems, but to propose also some possible solutions. It seems that the implementation of the partner‐ ship protocol had a positive effect on the delineation of the relationship of the involved par‐ ties and helped them overcome some the existing obstacles by becoming more cooperative

As mentioned in the introduction, mental health professionals and parents of children with disabilities hold their personal beliefs regarding the kind of relationship that they should have. The partnership protocol helped them understand their rights and obligations, since they might hesitate to discuss them openly. There are many mental health professionals who do not know how to set limits to their relationships with parents and many parents who do not know how to express their opinions or their questions regarding their child to mental health professionals. Therefore, the partnership protocol may be suggested by men‐ tal health professionals as a means to negotiate their relationship with parents, while it serves also as an opportunity to discuss further and to resolve any conflicts. However, it should be stressed that the partnership protocol is not a legally binding document and so parents and mental health professionals should follow it because they believe in its value. It can be implemented in any therapeutic framework, where it is essential for parents of chil‐ dren with disabilities and mental health professionals to work together. It could also be used to train mental health professionals who will work with children and adolescents with disa‐

This is the first study in Greece, and worldwide, that introduced the use of a partner‐ ship protocol to resolve possible conflicts that arise between mental health professionals and parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. Therefore, future studies should be conducted with parents of children with other disabilities, as well as with parents of children with chronic illnesses and with other mental health professionals, such as doc‐

tial, they might be skeptical about expressing very negative attitudes [155].

amined in the present study and could inform further research.

protocol after the six-month period.

548 Recent Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorders - Volume I

**4.5. Practical implementation and future research**

and willing to negotiate for the child's benefit.

bilities and their families [156].

tors, nurses, or teachers.

This study confirmed the findings of previous international research regarding the prob‐ lematic relationships between mental health professionals and the parents of children with disabilities. It was found that Greek mental health professionals are troubled by the parents' demands and their unwillingness to actively engage in their child's treatment. Greek parents of children with autism spectrum disorders claim that mental health pro‐ fessionals are not interested in involving them in decision-making regarding their child's therapy. Similar complaints have been expressed in other studies that have explored the relationship between mental health professionals and parents of children with autism spectrum disorders [77, 104, 147].

Despite the fact that the difficulties that were documented in this study have been identified a long time ago and in several contexts, there has been no published coordinated effort to resolve them. This partnership protocol was based on the codes of ethics of international or‐ ganizations of mental health professionals, it is written in simple language and it was con‐ sidered to be useful by most participants. The implementation of the partnership protocol helped mental health professionals and parents of children with autism spectrum disorders to define their interpersonal relationship and to overcome many of the difficulties and the problems that they had identified at the beginning of their cooperation. They started to com‐ municate more honestly, to respect each other more and to resolve their conflicts more effec‐ tively. Even though these findings are encouraging, more longitudinal studies with varied participants are needed to explore further the effectiveness of the partnership protocol.
