GSU program helps grandparents who are primary caregivers
Pulse editor
Sunday, January 18, 2009
More than 10 years ago, Barbara J. Smarr stepped in to raise her four grandchildren (ages 6, 7, 15 and 16) when their drug-addicted mother could no longer care for them.
“At that time, I didn’t have insurance for them and I didn’t know anything about legal aid,” Smarr said.
Photos by BARRY WILLIAMS / AJC Special
Carolyn Johnson of Atlanta holds her granddaughter Jaylee, 2. Johnson received help from Project Healthy Grandparents after she began raising two of her grandchildren.
Jewett Mukenge, nursing services supervisor for Project Healthy Grandparents, takes Maria Webley’s blood pressure. Part of the project’s focus is on the health of people who are taking care of their grandchildren.
A co-worker had read about Project Healthy Grandparents, a Georgia State University program that provides support to low-income grandparents who care for their grandchildren. Smarr enrolled in the program.
“They helped me gain legal custody, so that I could do what I needed to do for them … get them enrolled in school and get them health services through Medicaid,” Smarr said. “It cost $2,300, but I only paid a $300 fee. I became their mother with the help of the Lord, but I don’t know what I would have done without this program.”
Jamie Glenn, 62, has raised two of her 11 grandchildren from infancy. Their mother was addicted to crack cocaine and had abandoned them.
Glenn is proud that one grandson is graduating from Decatur High School this year and the other is doing well in middle school. Her daughter has since straightened out her life and remarried, but Glenn continues to make a home for her grandsons.
“I tell them that they need me, but I need them, too. It’s not a one-way street,” said Glenn, 62.
She gives credit to God, her mother and to Project Healthy Grandparents, who helped her adopt the boys, pay utility bills during tough times, supply clothing and monitor her health. High blood pressure and diabetes runs in her family, but she’s avoided it so far.
Two nurses at Georgia State University, Susan Kelley, Ph.D., and Bea Yorker, RN, J.D., established Project Healthy Grandparents in 1995. When she was researching child abuse and neglect, Kelley became increasingly concerned at how many children were being raised by their grandparents because their parents were drug- or alcohol-addicted, incarcerated or dead.
According to the 2000 census, 6.3 percent of children under 18 (4.5 million) are living in grandparent-headed households.
Filling in the gaps
“We knew that these grandparents had to be facing tremendous obstacles financially, physically and emotionally, so we put our heads together to come up with an intervention,” said Kelley, dean of Georgia State University’s College of Health and Human Sciences and director of Project Healthy Grandparents. “Due to their age, poor health or poverty, many were struggling and, while there are community and social programs in place to help parents, they often don’t apply to grandparents.”
Georgia State founded and supported the home- and community-based program. It still funds about half the costs; other funds come from the Georgia Department of Human Resources and private foundation grants.
“Our goal was to use an empowerment model,” Kelley said. “Grandparents bring many strengths to the role of parenting their grandchildren. We wanted to help them identify those strengths and build on them.
“We also wanted to help them find resources in the community to meet their needs.”
Project Healthy Grandparents has about 40 families enrolled in the program each year. For the first year, a nurse and social worker visit the homes once a month.
“We do physicals and health screenings, help manage their medications and refer them to community health providers as needed,” said Jewett Mukenge, BSN, RN, nursing services program coordinator. “If they can’t afford a doctor, we hook them up with free clinics.
“We help them set up self-care plans that may include stress-relief education or weight management. They don’t have the time to focus on their own health, so we do it.”
The program works with each family on an individual basis.
“Our social workers do a family assessment to determine the unique needs of each family and help them establish a plan,” said Vee Breedlove, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor at Georgia State’s School of Social Work.
Social workers refer clients to agencies that can help with transportation, food, clothing and health care. If adoption or legal guardianship seems appropriate, workers refer them to the Atlanta Legal Aid Society or to Kilpatrick Stockton, a law firm that does pro bono work.
Early intervention
Noticing that many of the children had developmental delays due to fetal alcohol syndrome or substance abuse by their mothers, the program began offering early-intervention services for children up to age 5. If workers suspect delays, they refer children to the Marcus Institute’s Fetal Alcohol Center at Emory University for full testing. After diagnosis, children often are eligible for public health or education programs such as Babies Can’t Wait, Preschool Special Education or Head Start.
Atlanta resident Carolyn Johnson, 51, got a sudden call from legal services in Florida several years ago. Her son was overseas in the military and the mother of her 19-month old grandson and 4-month-old granddaughter couldn’t take care of them. So Johnson took them in.
She recently discovered Project Healthy Grandparents.
“When my grandson wasn’t speaking well at school age, the PHG staff got him to the Marcus Institute and they’ve referred us to specialists to help,” Johnson said. “This program is invaluable. The avenues that they have opened up to me are priceless.”
Since her son won’t be out of the military for many years, Johnson is considering adoption. “I hadn’t planned on this, but the Lord just chooses some of us to be involved more directly with our grandchildren,” she said.
Johnson takes part in the program’s twice-monthly support group and information sessions, which are made up of current and former clients. With ages ranging from the 40s to the 70s, many grandparent caregivers are single and taking care of elderly parents as well as grandchildren. They have plenty of psychological stress and fewer avenues of support.
“The support group helps them not feel so alone, and they draw so much strength from one another,” Kelley said. “They are all inspiring individuals. Many start out saying they don’t see how they can do it, but then they do.
“Our funding agencies tell us that they like the sound of our program and what we do — but what sells them is meeting our clients.”
Since its inception, the program has helped about 650 families and 1,500 children. “The numbers aren’t large because of the intensity of the services,” said Kelley, but the impact has been great.
“In the last decade, there has been a lot more attention given to grandparents raising children, and other cities have support groups,” Kelley said.
Project Healthy Grandparents has been studied and replicated at several other universities, including the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia.
“I only know of a few other programs that are as comprehensive as ours,” Kelley said. “I’m very proud of our staff and what they’ve done.”