More children these days are living with Grandma and Grandpa, due to factors including incarceration, drug abuse, underemployment, and single parenthood. We’ll find out how these grandparents become primary caregivers of their grandchildren, and the challenges they face, including housing, health, financial and legal issues.
GUESTS:
- Lorraine Bartlett - director of the New Hampshire Division for Children Youth and Families
- Donna Butts - executive director of Generations United, a national advocacy group promoting support for intergenerational families.
- Marianne McDonald - legal guardian for two grandsons, now aged 20 and 27. She lives in Salem.
LINKS:
- N.H. Dept. of Health and Human Servicesresource guide for relative caregivers
- 2013 Pew report on grandfamilies: 'In 2011, 7.7 million children in the U.S.–one-in-ten—were living with a grandparent, and approximately 3 million of these children were also being cared for primarily by that grandparent.'
- NPR story on the rise of grandfamilies: "In a shift driven partly by culture and largely by the economy, the number of grandparents living with their grandchildren is up sharply. According to recent U.S. census data, such families have increased by about a third over the past generation."
- 2014 report from Generations United on the state of grandfamilies
