State childcare services are compounding the distress suffered by grandparents who step in to care for their grandchildren because of their own children’s addiction, research has found.
Grandparents surveyed expressed “anger” at child protection services and said no issue was “more contentious” than access to State financial support, such as foster care and guardianship payments.
The research said that grandparents reported a range of adverse effects on themselves from the strain of taking on their grandchildren, including:
- Five of the 10 families surveyed said they had to give up work to care for their grandchildren.
- Some reported damage to their own marriage; with two saying it had led to divorce.
- In a few cases, their own children were emotionally abusive and physically aggressive.
- The grandparents suffered a range of other effects, from sleep deprivation to exhaustion, to feelings of depression, anger and guilt.
- Some resorted to prescribed anti-depressants and sedatives and two explicitly discussed ideas that bordered on suicidal ideation.
Source: Cormac O'Keefe, Irish Examiner, 22/03/2016
Posted by Andy on 03/22 at 09:37 AM in
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