Day-Burget: Grandfamilies and COVID-19: Families of Unique Origins Face Unique Challenges

Raising a child can be hard at any age. Doing so in one’s golden years during a global pandemic introduces an array of unique challenges.

Mel Hannah spent most of his life in service to others. He was the first African American member of the Flagstaff City Council and vice chairman of the NAACP Arizona State Conference. And, in service to his beloved family, Mel and his wife Shirley, now in their 80s, have been helping their daughter Ashley raise her three children these past years. Sadly, however, Ashley contracted and tragically died from COVID-19 in May. Ashley’s untimely death left the Hannahs as the sole caretakers for her young boys, ages 5, 4, and 1.

The Hannahs’ story exemplifies the heavy toll of the pandemic, and especially the unique and often overlooked impact it is having on “grandfamilies” or kinship families. These are families in which children live with and are being raised by grandparents, other extended family members, and adults with whom they have a close family-like relationship, such as godparents and close family friends. Astonishingly, about 7.8 million children across the country live in households headed by grandparents or other relatives. Of that number, 2.7 million do not have a parent living in the household.

Often these families come together because of serious circumstances—including death, trauma, deployment, incarceration or substance abuse, and since March, the death of parents due to COVID-19. Raising kids is hard at any age, but doing so in one's “golden years” like the Hannahs’—particularly during a global pandemic—comes with its own unique challenges.

A report from RWJF grantee Generations United sheds light on families like the Hannahs, including the particular challenges they are facing as the world grapples with the coronavirus. The report found:

Almost half of grandparent caregivers are age 60 and older and at heightened risk for COVID-19.
More grandparent caregivers have disabilities than parents and also are likely at heightened risk for COVID-19.
Children being raised in grandfamilies are more likely to be Black or Native American than white. These are the same populations that are much more likely to be impacted by the pandemic and die as a result.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Day-Burget: Grandfamilies and COVID-19: Families of Unique Origins Face Unique Challenges

Raising a child can be hard at any age. Doing so in one’s golden years during a global pandemic introduces an array of unique challenges.

Add Comment

Comments (0)

Skip to main content

Raising a child can be hard at any age. Doing so in one’s golden years during a global pandemic introduces an array of unique challenges.

Add Comment

Membership Required

Remove From Your Block List

Manage Follow Preferences

Block

Please wait...