Partnering With Relatives for Kinship Care

Why is kinship care and partnering with relatives important, and what are some challenges? Our guests are Gregory Jones, a granddad raising five grandkids from birth to now ranging in age from 9 to 12; Ana Beltran, an attorney, and director of the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network: A National Technical Assistance Center; and Erica Burgess, a social worker with over 25 years of experience in child welfare, specializing in kinship care.

In this episode, we cover:

How common is kinship care throughout the US—both formal (child welfare involved) and informal?
Grandparents raising grandkids or aunts and uncles raising nephews and nieces is often complicated and comes with a mix of challenges and blessings.
What are some of the blessings?
What are some of the challenges?
Managing the relationship between the caregiver and the parents.
- What are some common challenges in this relationship?
- What are some common boundaries that need to be set in kinship care?
Lack of preparation and training for raising kids who have experienced trauma, neglect, prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs, etc.
Lack of financial support.
How can social workers and child welfare professionals make sure that kinship caregivers get the full extent of financial support?
Access to resources. What are some typical resources that kinship caregivers should ask about and that child welfare agencies should consider providing?
We see a significant variance between jurisdictions in social workers and child welfare professionals in the embrace of placing children with relatives.
- Why are some social workers hesitant to place kids with relatives?
- From an ethical perspective, why must social workers open their minds to looking for kin first when removing a child from their parents?
Placing children with kin rather than the state taking custody. (Hidden foster care/kinship diversion)
- Legal considerations
- Ethical considerations with the hidden foster.