Opioid epidemic has increased number of grandparents raising grandchildren; 21 percent in U.S. are in poverty

An increasing number of grandparents are raising their grandchildren, largely because many of the children's parents are addicted to heroin or prescription drugs, both increasing problems in rural areas, Teresa Wiltz reports for Stateline. In 2015, 2.9 million kids were living with their grandparents, up from 2.5 million in 2005.

"Child welfare officials say drug addiction, especially to opioids, is behind much of the rise in the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren, just as it was during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s," Wiltz writes. That has led to a growing number of children being neglected or abandoned and for caseworkers to turn to grandparents for help, largely because the foster care system is already overcrowded with children of addicts.

"Federal law requires that states consider placing children with relatives in order to receive foster care and adoption assistance," Wiltz writes. "And grandmothers and grandfathers often are the first—and best—choice when state and local caseworkers have to take a child out of a home and find someone else to take custody, said Angela Sausser, executive director of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio, a coalition of public child-safety agencies in the state."

Generations United, a group that works to improve the lives of youth and older adults, says that grandparents and other relatives raising children save taxpayers $4 billion each year by keeping the children out of the foster care system, Wiltz reports. But some of those grandparents might not be equipped to handle raising a child. Generations United says that 21 percent of grandparents caring for grandchildren live below the poverty line, 39 percent are over 60 and 26 percent have a disability. "And because many are not licensed in the system, they are not eligible for the same services and financial support as licensed foster parents." (Read more)

UK study reports high rates of trauma exposure in Kentucky children who are raised by their grandparents

The University of Kentucky Center for Trauma and Children sent out a report about the well-being of trauma-exposed families in which a grandparent is the primary caregiver and where no biological parent is present. The report calls these families "grandfamilies." In Kentucky, more than 67,000 children live with a grandparent, and biological parents are absent in more than half of those cases. "According to the study, substance abuse, child maltreatment and incarceration were the top three reasons these children lived with a grandparent," Elizabeth Adams writes for UK Public Relations.

The report also found that 73 percent of children in the sample of grandfamilies had suffered one or more traumatic experiences, and more than 16 percent had suffered four or more. Forty-three percent of the grandparents said their grandchild had a special mental-health need, and more than 17 percent said their grandchild had been diagnosed with a disorder related to trauma. Also, the grandparents participating in the study said they suffered from an average of at least two chronic illnesses.

Almost 300 grandparent caregivers participated in the study through the Caregiver Program for Grandparents Raising Grandchildren between March 2013 and December 2013. Both rural and urban families were interviewed. The study highlights a need for more specialized services for traumatic stress in children and "enhanced legal, financial and health care resources for their caregivers," Adams writes.

Dr. Ginny Sprang, director of the UK Center for Trauma and Children, served as the principal investigator for the study. To schedule an interview about the study, contact Elizabeth Adams at ElizabethAdams@uky.edu. Electronic copies of the report are also available.

Study: Grandparent caregivers aren't up on latest safety standards for babies and children

Grandparents might be more quick to say yes to grandkids but they might also be a little behind the times on the the new safety guidelines that could better protect them. A new study finds that many grandparent caregivers don't know about those new health suggestions and, in some cases, laws for babies -- such as appropriate sleep position, crib safety and car seat use. This is particularly critical in a country where 2.8 million grandparents are primary caregivers to their grandchildren, an increase of nearly 20 percent since 2000, according to the the 2011 American Community Survey.

In this study, reporter Robert Preidt of HealthDay writes that 56 percent of grandparents asked got the question about the safest sleep position of babies wrong. (The correct answer is on their backs, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.) "Another question addressed correct car seat positioning, and 24.5 percent of the participants said that a 9-month-old, 22-pound child should be facing forward. The AAP recommends, however, that children remain in rear-facing car seats until age 2 years." It doesn't get much better. Almost half of those grandparents questioned thought it was OK to have bumpers, stuffed animals and blankets in cribs. It's not.

We know it's difficult but maybe it time to have the talk. (Read more)

1 in 4 grandparents keep meds where kids can reach them

A new poll shows nearly one in four grandparents say they store prescription medicines in places that can be accessed by children. Unintentional poisonings cause more visits to the emergency room for young children — one every 10 minutes — than car accidents, to say nothing of the threat of theft, a factor in the prescription-drug epidemic that is killing more Kentuckians than such accidents.

The most common type of prescriptions that are accidentally ingested are opioids, the poll found. The most common type of over-the-counter medicine ingested is acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, reports research-reporting service Newswise.

The poll found that 23 percent of grandparents and 5 percent of parents store prescription meds in easy-to-access places. Eighteen percent of grandparents and 8 percent of parents said they store over-the-counter medicine in easily accessible spots.

"Emergency room visits for accidental poisonings among young children have become much more frequent in the last decade," said Matthew Davis, director of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health. "We hope the results of this poll are a reminder to parents, grandparents and all those who care for young children: check around your homes to make sure that medicines are safely stored out of reach." (Read more)

Though the numbers are on the rise, on the whole, American children are safer than they ever were, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of death from unintentional injuries dropped 29 percent from 2000 to 2009. Deaths dropped from 12,400 in 2000 to about 9,100 in 2009.

Poisoning death rates rose dramatically, however‚ going up 91 percent in youths aged 15 to 19, "a byproduct of the rising prescription-drug abuse among teens who either obtain the pills illegally or swipe them from medicine cabinets of their parents or others," reports Timothy Martin for The Wall Street Journal. (Read more)