Carers in gran plan
A DETERMINED grandparent is on a mission to raise awareness and support for thousands of struggling kinship carers receiving no recognition.
Kinship care is care given to children who must be removed from their birth parents, by relatives or close family friends.
Kirsty Buckly and husband Robbie took in six- year- old grandson Cooper when was 20 months old.
Still recovering from a traumatic childhood, Ms Buckly said Cooper had reactive attachment disorder and PTSD and neither would ever go away.
“It’s improving, but it will always be there,” she said.
“He won’t walk down our hallway without turning the light on, as he doesn’t like the dark. Some things will never change.”
In light of his early upbringing with his mother, Cooper sees a psychologist, speech pathologist and occupational therapist. Ms Buckly he said in her situation, there was no financial support from the government.
“If we were formal kinship carers, or foster parents, these services would be free,” she said. “In our position we fall outside of the system.”
Ms Buckly said once the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services ( DOCS) had seen grandparents take in their grandchildren, everything was deemed OK.
“They just leave the situation and think it’s all resolved,” she said.
The grandmother has now become the voice for many others after being appointed grandparent carer representative on the Queensland Carers Advisory Council.
Ms Buckly said she nominated herself for the role to advocate for more support, in particular for informal carers.
“I want to be the voice for those of us who don’t get anything,” she said.
“The only support I get from State Government is about $ 500 a year through the Time for Grandparents program. This allocated funding is for children in informal grandparent care to participate in a sport or after- school activity each school term.
Ms Buckly has established a Townsville Kinship Carers Facebook page after personal experience saw her finally receive some much needed assurance.
“In my first 18 months with Cooper, I thought I was the only person in the entire world in this situation,” she said. “We are currently only small with nine families, but growing.”
Ms Buckly’s group provides opportunities for social get- togethers and informal support. “It is also a place for sharing links to support services and helpful information,” she said.