The Challenges Grandparents Face As Primary Caregivers

Grandparent caregivers have low receipt of public assistance despite high levels of poverty (Brandon, 2005). This is true among caregivers raising grandchildren outside the children welfare system. Despite similarities in both type and level of need, caregivers whose children are not involved with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) are less likely to access formal services including respite care, public assistance, and legal advice (Lindsey, Meril, & Norella, 2008). This shows that there are barriers in access to public support among grandparent caregivers who are informally raising their grandchildren.

Strict eligibility requirements for public assistance may be prohibitive for many grandparent caregivers in the United States. Grandparents who are otherwise eligible to collect welfare based on their own income may be discouraged by the strict work requirements either due to their prior exit from the labor force or because of their advancing age, poor health or functional status (Cohen, 2006). In addition, grandparents who received benefits while raising their own children may be ineligible to receive funding to raise their grandchildren if they have previously exceeded the time limits imposed by welfare reform. Grandparents may be eligible to receive child-only payments that are exempt from these requirements; however, these benefits are much lower than family benefits. As a consequence, the neediest families (e.g. chronically poor households) may actually be the least likely to receive benefits through this technique.

Grandparents have also reported much difficulty in obtaining health insurance for the grandchildren they are raising, especially those who do not have legal custody of the grandchild (Casper & Bryson, 2002). Health insurance for children within the United States is obtained primarily through the employer of their primary caregiver, with the exception of children from low-income families who are often insured through a range of need based public health insurance programs.

Grandparents who are retired (or otherwise not employed) are unlikely to have access to a reasonably priced group plan and may have to turn to an expensive private plan if the grandchild cannot be insured through a parent. Even grandparent caregivers who are employed may have difficulty obtaining benefits for a grandchild if their employer does not consider the grandchild a dependent. This situation is quite common among grandparents who are informally raising a grandchild; in fact, out of more than 50 companies surveyed by Generations United, none allowed grandparents to include grandchildren on a health insurance plan unless a formal legal relationship had been established (Generations United, 2002).

Grandparents raising grandchildren are also in danger of living in poor housing conditions. Over 14% of grandparent caregivers live in overcrowded housing conditions, compared with just over 4% their peers; grandparents who rent have been identified as an especially vulnerable population as nearly 30% live in overcrowded conditions (Fuller-Thomson & Minkler, 2003). This level of overcrowding is not surprising considering that the entrance of the grandchild into the household can be unexpected and sudden; housing meant for one or two older adults suddenly has got to fulfill the family needs. In recent years, many states have begun to introduce public housing specifically targeted at grandparent caregivers. An example of this is Nyumbani Village in Kitui County, a 27-unit (each unit with 4 clusters) housing project aimed at housing grandparents raising grandchildren. While programs such as this have been helpful in addressing the housing needs of grandparent caregivers, they are limited in scope and are only practical for those caregivers who have permanent custody of their grandchildren.

Benefits Of Ayurveda And Yoga For Elderly

Grandparents are the roots of the family tree, a best play partner for children and the one who shares the best life experiences with them. Grandparents have a lot to offer, and for reassuring their presence for yoga impart yoga and Ayurveda into their lives. Explore the blog to know about the benefits of yoga and ayurveda for grandparents and how they should get started. Grandparents and elderly people are a treasure to a family, and it is the responsibly of the youngsters to pay attention towards their health and maintain it as well. Old age comes with both positive and negative notions, where at one place society give immense respect to elderly and they are considered the guardians.

Getting older presents you with many gifts- grace, maturity, wisdom, experience, etc. to name a few. But on the other hand, with age they faces multiple problems which needs to treated for a comforting aging. When we find ourselves in bad health we do a lot of things including going to gym, doing aerobics, indulging into Keto or visiting doctors popping in medications, etc. But the same doesn’t go well with the grandparents. Your grandparents can’t be lifting weights at such age or indulge into some alter diet routine or try remedies just to experiment. But for reassuring their healthy presence in the family for long, it is important to leave both their mind and body feeling great at this age. This is where the holistic practice of yoga and ayurveda comes in handy. Yoga and Ayurveda are the age-old system of preventative and curative medicine.

A holistic approach to life and health issue, both the ancient practice has today took the health and fitness industry by strong. The practice is amazing for children, adults and seniors. Health conscious seniors takes aging positively that who are not, and love to try and adopt new health management goals for themselves. So here we are noting down sure shot benefits of yoga and ayurveda for grandparents, and how they can get started: Why Yoga and Ayurveda for Grandparents? Yoga is an amazing form of exercise for seniors to stay active and healthy in old-age. The holistic practice of yoga and Ayurveda reduces the negative impact of old age and build positivity to grow old gracefully. As per scientific study, the practice postpones age-related effects and also controls geriatric problems. Induce Better Sleep for Complete Relaxation With age problem in sleeping increases and yoga is the practice than put positive impact on the seniors making them fall asleep easily and restfully. According to studies, yoga practice reduces the fall-asleep time in seniors and increase the duration of sleeping.

Enhance Muscle Strength that Protects Joints Strong muscles mean better joint condition, and yoga is the practice that surely improves the same preventing the risk of arthritis. Grandparents with arthritis issue can practice chair yoga for relieving the pain and soothing effects. Yoga protect join reducing the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Prevent and Control Diabetes Diabetes again is the common health condition among adults and with yoga one can prevent or control type 2 diabetes. Research has proven that after practicing yoga for 40 days people age 30-60 have experienced significant decline in the blood sugar level. Help in Losing Weight With back issue or knee joint pain indulging into exercising is difficult which result in weight gain for many aged people. But yoga is the way out that cure back pain, relief joint issue and loses weight if practiced daily. Practicing chair yoga or easy poses help senior with less weight gain.

Reduce Stress and Hyper Tension Stress and tension is not restricted to any particular age group, certain conditions and our reaction to situation is enough to build up stress. Yoga has positive impact on stress, anxiety and hypertension, and people practicing yoga for three months have seen drop in cholesterol level as well. Improve Flexibility Mobility of the body is required for proper body movement. Yoga is perfect for seniors to stay active and fit. It strengthens and stretches the body making it flexible.

Yoga maintains a good range of body motion, improve balance, and enhance stability which prevents the risk of fall injury. Other: Yoga enhance bone strength, keep digestion healthy, relieves chronic pain, relieves lung issues, boost mood, and more, and if you start practicing it early it may also reduces the sign of aging making skin look radiant and also prevent early hair greying. Best Yoga Asana for your Grandparents Practice asana Vrikasana, Sukhasana, Shavasana, Bhujanagasanam Pawanmuktasana, Uttanapadasana, Makrasama and more are beneficial. Also indulge in 20 minutes of meditation practice to rejuvenate mind and body. Practice breathing techniques like Anulom Vilom Pranayama and Bhramri Pranayama. Aging Gracefully with Ayurveda Practicing Ayurvedic routine and trying Ayurveda remedies help your grandparents to get rid of certain health condition comes down the line with age. Along with above mentioned benefits, Ayurveda help you age gracefully providing your skin a healthy boost making it smooth, radiant, and skin disease free. It keeps eyes healthy and minimise the chances of suffering from many other health condition occurs with old age. Certain Ayurvedic remedies and therapies also help the grandparents for easy senior hood. With Ayurvedic diet follow Ayurvedic daily regime to aid age issues. Combine yoga with Ayurvedic therapies like Abhyanaga, Swesabam, Dhara, Pixhichul, etc. only after proper consultation.

For complete rejuvenation one can try Ayurvedic home remedies related to stomach issue and pain. Change in Daily Regime Change in habit plays essential role and needs to be corrected with Ayurvedic lifestyle and yoga practice like sleeping. Lifestyle is one of the biggest reasons for health condition not only in seniors, but with all of us. We all have power to influence the routine to which the ancient system of yoga and ayurveda assist. Improving health the holistic practice allow you socialise which itself relieve stress, depression, anxiety and stabilize emotions. With all the mental and physical benefits, enhance the spiritual awakening by connecting with self strongly and deeply. Yoga and Ayurveda on all grounds help grandparents correcting their health and lifestyle providing them the opportunity to have a happy aging.

The Emotional Development Of Individuals Growing Up By Grandparents

Abstract

Emotional development is started at a young age and the people we are surrounded by at that stage play a massive role in the outcome of our development of ourselves and future relationships we have with others. Using the data that was gathered it will show the fundamental importance of how interacting with our grandparents may help our development. The survey made by google forms will show data that supports the importance of grandparent relationships. The participants answered variou questions that demonstrate the many findings of the different relationships one had with their grandparent to themselves. Different studies have also shown how grandparents give emotional support to grandchildren as parents are absent within the household.

Extended family homes involving grandparents are in many cultures for many reasons, including young parents, single parents seeking guidance, financial reasons, and also caring for one another if one is ill or just elderly. Emotional development starts at a young age, In Erikson’s first stage of psychosocial development he mentions the importance of it because it’s the base of the child’s future relationships. In my paper we will discuss how individuals are emotionally affected while frequently seeing their grandparents.

There are a number of reasons why a grandparent might frequent in a grandchild’s life whether it be frequent visit or living among each other. (Mullen,1996)In 1970 it was reported 2.2 million children were living with grandparents. By 1993 the number had grown significantly by 3-4 million. (Dunne,Kettler,2008)Grandchildren might live with their grandparents because of parental death, sexual, physical, alcohol abuse or mental illness. Because of these underlying trauma and the time they endured it they might have issues present. They have found that children in care of their grandparents scored lower on a delinquent scale compared to those children living with non family members. (Henderson,Hayslip,Sanders,Louden,2009) Divorce also has negative short and long term effects on children and how they might view their bonds with their parents.

Grandparents provide support for their grandchildren in many ways.(De guzman, Obmerga, Estar,2018) They are viewed as pillars of wisdom and natural educators because of their wide range of experiences. Because of their presence grandchildren were able to have a demeanor of generosity, and warmth. (Dunne, Kettler,2008)Also Thanks to grandparents frequanting in grandchildren lives negative issues such as aggression, criminal activity and withdrawn behavior was seen less in those children.(Henderson,Hayslip,Sanders,Louden,2009) Grandchildren from divorced family show positive signs from increased involvement from their grandparents because their receive normality, emotional support as they adjust.

Hypothesis

Individuals who spend more time with their grandparents tend to have more emotional stability.

Participants

There were 37 participants, 7 being male, 29 females. The majority of the participants were from Avc and a few were facebook users. The age ranged from the youngest being 19 to the oldest being 58. There was a wide range of ethnicities the largest being 24 of hispanic/latino descent.

Procedure

Once the survey was complete it was emailed to the professor if he could send it out to the other students in the class. An email was sent out to AVC students and a link was also posted to a personal facebook page. From there they could click on the link and it would direct them to a new page with the survey. Then they would answer all the given questions to the best of their ability and press submit when done. Once I received enough response I closed the survey.

Results

16 of the 37 responses answered that they never see their grandparents but the other 21 see their grandparents ranging from everyday to every few months. So the majority do see their grandparents . Participants were also asked if they feel their relationship with their grandparent is important and the majority answered Yes.

I then asked the participants if they had kids, the majority did not. The few that did evened out when answering how often their kids see their grandparents. 4 answered often and another 4 answered not very often.The participants were also asked how they feel their emotional support was with their grandparents compared to their parents 16 answered that they felt they had more emotional support, 14 felt they had the same and only 7 said they had less.

The survey then proceeds to ask the participants questions about how they viewed themselves and their surroundings. When asked about how they felt about their social support it had them look at 1-5 questions, 1 being very little/no social support and 5 being a very strong social support 12 answered with 5, 10 answered with 4 while only 2 answered with 1.

When asked if they were confident about trying new things again the majority of the participants leaned more towards 5 and 4. 1 meaning that they did not feel confident trying new things while 5 meant they were very confident in trying new things. 10 participants checked 5 while 9 checked 4. For more information on what the participants answered please check the graph below.

Discussion

In conclusion the data suggest that it’s beneficial for individuals to frequently spend time with their grandparents. The data suggests that individuals do in fact find their grandparents important even though most do not visit their grandparents frequently. Most participants did show strong results in their emotional stability. In the future to achieve stronger data it will be more effective to conduct a survey to a larger network around those who have children already.

References

  1. De Guzman, A., Obmerga, E, M., Ester, C., Roncesvalles, C. Villareal, N, B., (2018). As You sow, Shall you reap: Understanding the social- emotional development of a select group of filipinio grandchildren reared by grandparent educators. Gerontology, Volume 44, 514-525. 10.1080/03601277.
  2. Dunne,G,E., Kettler,J,L., (2008). Grandparents raising grandchildren in Australia: Exploring psychological health and grandparents experience of providing kinship care. Journal of social welfare, Volume 17(4), 333-345. 10.111/J..1468-2397
  3. Mullen, F., (1996). Public Benefits: Grandparents, grandchildren, and welfare reform. Generations, Volume 20(1), 61-64.
  4. Henderson,E,C.,Hayslip,B.,Sanders,M,L.,(2009). Grandmother-Grandchild relationship quality predicts psychological adjustment among youth from divorced families. Family issues, volume 30(9), 1245-1264. 10.1177/0192513