The Kinship Care Issue
Through its contracted case management providers, Kids Central delivers services to more than 700 children who are placed with relatives. But “Kinship Care” reaches far beyond those children and their relative caregivers.
According to the Florida Department of Elder Affairs (DOEA), there are 13,970 children living with their grandparents in the five counties served by Kids Central (“Assessing the Needs of Elder Floridians, 2004″). The vast majority of these children were not placed with their grandparents through the child welfare system, and it is this group of children and caregivers who typically do not receive needed services and supports.
Click HERE to view Relative Caregiver Assistance brochure
Identifying the Need
In mid-2005, Kids Central convened a workgroup consisting of various community providers to identify services and service gaps for relative (kinship) caregivers. This group, made of representatives from Kids Central, the Florida Kinship Center, Florida Respite Coalition, DCF, Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, State Senator Evelyn Lynn’s office, Fifth Judicial Circuit Family Courts, a community mental health agency, and grandparents/relative caregivers, is now known as the Kids Central Regional Kinship Care Advisory Board.
Chapin Hall Center for Children, University of Chicago, published a report in 2006 entitled, “Caring for their Children’s Children – Assessing the Mental Health Needs and Service Experiences of Grandparent Caregiver Families.” The research was based on interviews and surveys with caregiver families and mental health providers in Illinois. While the sample size was small, the research supports other research efforts with larger sample sizes as well as anecdotal information regarding the needs of caregivers.
The following summarizes the significant findings of this research:
- Caregivers do not know who to contact if they need information or services.
- Changes associated with assuming care of grandchildren include changes in employment, marital well-being or status, role change from grandparent to parent, and loss of freedom.
- Four-fifths of those surveyed reported one or more health problems.
- Caregivers reported being tired with increased health problems.
- Depression had often been experienced by the caregiver related to their own health, the children’s behaviors, parental incarceration, the number of children they are caring for, and the effects of disruptions on their work schedule and income.
- Grandparents reported that the most often used coping mechanism was faith or faith-based networks. Others reported they cope by involving grandchildren in activities to keep them busy and to give themselves a break, a supportive circle of friends or family, and some had turned to more formal supports such as counseling.
- Challenging child behaviors include social problems, aggressive behavior, and rule-breaking.
Many grandparents reported a need to just to be able to talk with other grandparents who are raising grandchildren. For some families, support groups and informational resources will sufficiently meet their needs. However, the research found that approximately one-third of the grandparents and two-thirds of the grandchildren needed a more targeted clinical intervention.
Meeting the Need
Kids Central is committed to expanding its services to current clients and to all relative caregivers.
Kids Central recently was awarded a grant by Western Michigan University and the Kellogg Foundation to create a Relative Caregiver Resource Center for Florida. And funding provided by the Brookdale Foundation and the Mid-Florida Area Agency on Aging, is being used to establish support services for kinship care providers throughout Circuit 5.
Kids Central held its 4th annual Kinship Care Conference on September 17-18, 2010. The purpose of the conference is to raise awareness of the complex issues faced by grandparents and other family members who raise relative children, and to provide those caregivers with supports and resources in their own communities. Kids Central intends to conduct the conference annually, using the information gleaned from conference participants each year to develop and deliver additional services for Kinship Care providers in Circuit 5.
Kinship Care Support Groups are offered in Citrus, Hernando, Lake, Marion and Sumter Counties. Please click HERE for more information and visit the Kinship Calendar to see the schedule for each county.
Kids Central Inc. hosts an annual Kinship Conference in order to provide valuable information to both Kinship caregivers as well as professionals that assist our caregivers.
Raise money for 
