Grandparent-headed families continue to grow
A report detailing the issues faced by grandparents who are acting as full time carers for their grandchildren has been released by the Council on the Ageing (COTA) New South Wales (NSW).
The Listening to Grandparents report, which was funded by the Keneally Government, showed these grandparents often faced major upheaval in their lives and severe financial and emotional strain.
“They may struggle and often feel ill-prepared to deal with a role which has been taken on out of love, and a deep sense of duty and care,” NSW Ageing Minister, Peter Primrose, said.
“They can also experience considerable grief at the loss of the traditional grandparent role as they make a shift in commitment from ‘grandparent’ to ‘grandparent as parent’.”
Mr Primrose said that a Grandparent Forum hosted by COTA NSW and the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Ageing in 2008 found that grandparents reported feeling invisible, undeserving, voiceless and socially isolated within the community.
Mr Primrose said that Listening to Grandparents, which is based on the forum’s discussions, gave personal accounts of what it was like for grandparents raising their grandchildren.
Mr Primrose said that the Keneally government had already started implementing some of the report’s recommendations.
“For example, the Attorney General has just recently introduced a standard statutory declaration which enables grandparents informally looking after a child to make a statutory declaration that they are responsible for their regular care,” he said.
“This is already making it easier for grandparents who informally care for children to provide consent for day-to-day activities, such as school excursions, in the absence of the parents.”
Mr Primrose praised COTA NSW for producing the report and noted its other achievements, which include the Raising Grandchildren website, a resource for grandparents to navigate support available to them, and the establishment of the Grandparent, Relative and Kinship Carer Alliance.
Mr Primrose said that since the study was initiated, the Keneally government had provided $200,000 to the Council on Ageing for projects that support and acknowledge grandparenting.
“COTA NSW has also run a Legal Pathways for Older People pilot that enables grandparents denied access to grandchildren and those raising their grandchildren to seek timely and free legal advice,” Mr Primrose said.
“Grandparents have a central role in our community and I am pleased to assist the Council on the Ageing to support and acknowledge the valuable contribution of grandparents.”
For more information visit http://www.cotansw.com.au
More US children being raised by a grandparent
Approximately 10% of American children live with a grandparent, according to a report by the Pew Research Center, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data. Over the last 10 years, the number of children living with a grandparent has been steadily increasing, with a slight acceleration during 2007-2008 when the recession hit.
The report said that approximately 41% of children who live with a grandparent(s), 2.9 million in total, are being primarily raised by that grandparent. This figure has also been progressively growing over the last ten years, with a spike during 2007-2008 when the figure rose 6%.
Grandparents as primary caregivers are more common among Afro-American and Hispanic families than among Caucasians. However, since the recession, the numbers among white families has been rising the fastest.
In 2007-2008 the number of white grandparents who were also the principle caregiver rose by 9%, the report informs, compared to 2% among African-American and 0% among Hispanic families.
About 49% of kids who are raised by grandparents also live with a single parent; 43% of them have no parent at home, while 8% have a caregiver grandparent as well as both parents at home.
