‘It's not fair’: Custodial grandparents' access to services and supports in Australia

Abstract

Grandparents become custodial carers of their grandchildren for a variety of reasons, including love, fear of losing the children to the system, efforts to protect children while managing relationships with the adult child (parent), policy impetus, and even for the convenience of child protection systems. As obvious candidates for care provision, grandparents report feeling pressured to take on care, and yet many grandcarers are poorly supported and feel taken for granted. Drawing on a mixed method study of grandparent carers and service providers located in Western Australia, we argue that there are important issues of inequity and injustice associated with being a grandcarer, in particular due to systemic and discursive failures to recognize the complexity and challenges of care provision. Misrecognition and epistemic injustice result in further marginalization and disempowerment, compounding barriers to accessing services and supports, which in turn impact upon child and family wellbeing. The aim of this article is to analyse the complex circumstances described by grandcarers and service providers in interview and survey data, highlighting issues of inequity and injustice and therefore areas for improving policy and services to support grandfamilies.

‘It's rewarding because I get the love’: Grandparents raising grandchildren with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder

“…legal, financial, substance use and/or health; Hayslip et al, 2019; Hingley‐Jones et al, 2020), the possibility of the grandchild returning to potentially unsafe living conditions was a major source of distress for these grandparents. This finding aligns with previous descriptions of the legal issues that arise from the informal caregiving relationships experienced by grandparents raising grandchildren (Fernandes et al, 2021; Hillman & Anderson, 2019).…”

“…The provision of formal resources to address the added demands of caregiving while ageing, obtaining legal guardianship of their grandchild and planning for their grandchild's future financial security and wellbeing could decrease parental stress and ease adaptation within these families. Linking grandparent caregivers with resources to assist in gaining legal guardianship, including legal aid and financial assistance, could help secure decision‐making capacity for these caregivers and give them peace of mind (Fernandes et al, 2021; Hillman & Anderson, 2019). The need for tailored information and supports to facilitate life planning, such as finalizing a will, establishing a trust and preparing other legal options to ensure a child's lifelong care (Hillman & Anderson, 2019), was also identified by participants.…”

Lessons from the Field. Community‐based participatory research: The important role of university–community partnerships to support grandfamilies

“…Factors contributing to these outcomes include grandparents' competing demands and challenges (Hayslip et al, 2019), along with childhood trauma and abandonment often experienced by grandchildren (Smith & Palmieri, 2007). As a result, social isolation due to role conflict or shame about the cargiving situation (Cox, 2003; Fernandes et al, 2021) and stressors of caring for grandchildren with disabilities (Hillman & Anderson 2019) may further complicate grandfamilies' experiences. Service providers are critical partners in effectively implementing programs and supporting grandfamilies.…”

“…Yet providers often indicate a need for more training and guidance to better serve this population (Fruhauf et al, 2015), and custodial grandparents are wary of seeking provider assistance due to mistrust and fear of working with the child welfare system (Yancura & Greenwood, 2013). It is not surprising, then, that both grandparents and service providers recognize the invisibility and misrecognition of grandfamilies when considering programming and support services for parents (Fernandes et al, 2021). Importantly, research conducted by scholars has integrated and extended the knowledge base of grandfamilies' well‐being including physical, mental, and social health concerns; service needs; and strengths (Hayslip et al, 2019) and points to the importance of creating innovative, empirically driven educational interventions to support and empower custodial grandparents and the grandchildren in their care (Musil et al, 2015).…”

“…As previously discussed, grandfamilies experience challenges and strengths because they vary in socioeconomic status, family histories and challenges associated with the middle generation, cultural beliefs, and the needs of both grandparents and grandchildren. This may be further complicated by environmental factors or grandfamilies' geographic location as resources available in their communities and the ability to access these resources may be limited (Fernandes et al, 2021). Thus, the first lesson learned is that although we conducted a review of the literature and needs assessments before developing the GRANDcares program, grandfamilies' possible identities and daily needs were different between our two states.…”