In battle against opioids, grandparents shield kids
More than 2.5 million children nationwide — including nearly 11,000 in Florida — are being raised not by their moms and dads, but by grandparents or other extended family.
While grandparents have long played an essential role in caring for their children’s children, these and other kin are finding it increasingly necessary to step in when one or both parents are hooked on opioids, heroin or some other substance.
Rather than relying on state-sponsored foster care, family members often are called upon to fill the void, as with the maternal grandparents of the couple who died of a fentanyl overdose last December. After the couple was found in their parked, idling car along Interstate 4 near DeLand, their three young sons still buckled in their seats, the grandparents came through to provide a loving, familiar home for children in dire need of security.
We need to wrap a lot of support around these selfless caregivers. Even as they grapple with their own sorrow and regrets, they are faced with taking in grieving, devastated children. They take on parenting responsibilities they thought were behind them — along with the accompanying financial and emotional burdens.
A national study from the USDA determined that the monthly cost of raising a child in the United States is $990. On average, foster parents receive approximately $500 a month, or half the cost. Grandparents raising a child usually do not receive any financial aid. If they do apply for state assistance, they might get $200 to $250 a month.
That money has to cover a myriad of costs, with expenses ranging from setting up a new bedroom, to backpacks and school lunches, shoes and clothes — not to mention health care and extracurricular activities, such as sports and music.
Recognizing the need in our region, Community Based Care of Central Florida has partnered with Children’s Home Network to provide much-needed resources and support for kinship caregivers. This is a smart investment, as grandparents and other relatives save taxpayers an estimated $4 billion nationwide by providing an alternative to children entering the licensed foster-care system.
Through our team of coordinators in Osceola and Orange counties (and soon, one in Seminole), we work with relatives to ensure the basics are covered — such as mental-health services, food stamps and Medicaid.
Support groups meet on a monthly basis, with speakers offering advice on topics such as legal aid, nutrition, and comforting traumatized children. We also set up activities, such as ice-skating outings and holiday dinners, to help families bond and increase their sense of normalcy. These initiatives are partly funded thanks to generous donations from our community — including program expansion funding from Heart of Florida United Way — but more help is needed. On the legislative level, we need to offer adequate financial aid for these essential caregivers. Whenever possible, we should work to keep families together — and help them move beyond surviving to thriving.