Weekly reading response 8 - Essay Example

Family plays a pivotal role in the upbringing of their children. Today there are different forms of families where children are brought up. It might be a nuclear family, a joint family, a lone parent family, foster families or cohabited families. In all types of families except the foster family, children are raised by either parents or a single parent. A foster family is one where a child’s care is taken by a kin relative who may be uncle, aunt or grandparents. Fostering is very popular is most parts of the world where children are raised by a kin under healthy conditions.

However, in the west generally it is done under forced circumstances by law and order (Guerin, 2011). In these cases grandparents play one of the most important roles in the health care of the child which we will discuss further down the paper. The number of grandparents raising their grandchildren has increased sharply over the last few years. As per the U.S census reports, there are around 2.4 million grandparents upbringing their grandchildren. This has happened due to a number of reasons – increase in the number of single parent families, high rates of divorce, substance abuse and neglect by parents, death or disability of parents, AIDS or teenage pregnancies.

However, undertaking the responsibility of a grandchild can be both rewarding and risky for the grandparents. Generally, when grandparents take care of a child they provide him with the necessary constancy, dependability, financial assistance and health care. Being experienced, they bring up the children with good values and perspective (Kropf and Wilks, 2003). However, the negative aspect cannot be ignored, that is children who are living with their grandparents might come with previously existing problems of abuse, neglect, loss of parents due to death, abandonment or incarceration and early exposure to drugs and alcohol.

Such situations might prove risky for both children and grandparents (“Facts for Families”, 2008). As McCallion and Janicki have stated that the health care of the child is totally in the hands of the grandparents like handling ‘severe and chronic emotional and physical conditions of their grandchildren’ (in Kropf and Wilks, 2008). In these health related risks, grandparents should take the help of health care professionals who would provide them with proper advice and assistance. These professional also provide financial assistance for the betterment of the child’s health as well as the aging grandparents.

They might also work with more grandparents in kinship care roles (Kropf and Wilks, 2008). Thus, we may conclude that in families where grandparents are residing with the children or are responsible for their upbringing, they play a major role in the child’s life and such relations have major implications on the heath care professionals. ReferencesFacts for Families: Grandparents raising Grandchildren (2008) American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, [Online], Available: http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/grandparents_raising_grandchildren [03 October 2011] Guerin, P. (2011) HLTH2105 Chapter 3: Lifespan: Middle and Later Years (adulthood and ageing), Barkway: Guerin, P.

and Guerin, B.Kropf, N.P. and Wilks, S. (2003) ‘Grandparents raising Grandchildren’ in B. Berkman and L.K. Harootyan (ed.) Social work and Health care in an aging society: education, policy, practice and research, New York: Springer Publishing Co.