Direct Practice With Children and Families: Parenting Grandchildren Teaching Module

This teaching module contains PowerPoint slides with teaching notes, teaching script, and additional reference materials that include information related to grandparents raising grandchildren. Describes national data, demographics by race, Texas data by race, and circumstances leading to parenting grandchildren (substance abuse, teen pregnancy, death of a parent, divorce, unemployment, neglect, incarceration, child abuse, illness, and disease). Challenges and concerns include employment and child care; legal, financial, health, and housing issues; and children with special needs. Consequences include social and lifestyle changes, health issues, and legal ambiguity. Roles of the social worker include assessment using a life-span developmental perspective, advocacy, education, support, and case management. A video recommendation with class discussion questions and a case-study recommendation with discussion questions are included. An extensive reference list is provided for additional reading.

Competencies Addressed in This Module:

• Ability to provide comprehensive geriatric social work case management to link elders and their families to resources and services to assist them with multifaceted problems and provide long-term care planning
• Developing interventions based on the stages in the late-life family and intergenerational roles and interaction

(a) Integrate understanding of caretaker’s behavior
(b) Support the multiple types of grandparent roles
(c) Build interventions around cultural strengths and challenges in the intergenerational family
(d) Recognize and support the diversity of family such as grandparent-headed families and other    family types