BAKERSFIELD, CA.-Five percent of Kern children under 18 lived in the care of a grandparent in 2012, according to the latest statistics from the Kern County Network for Children. That's compared to three percent of California children living with grandparents.
Local grandparents make the sacrifice to raise their grandchildren in order to give the next generation a better life.
"I couldn't fathom to see them in the system so I said I'd rather just take them all myself," said Bakersfield grandmother Josie Martinez. She and her husband are raising 11 of their 22 grandchildren.
UCLA researchers created the Elder Index and calculated the annual cost of grandparents raising grandkids. Using the federal poverty level as a baseline, researchers concluded Kern county grandparents need less money than in any other California county to raise kids.
But that need is still $6,000 dollars more per kid a year than the average local grandparent has.
"In this case when we were looking at low income seniors when they were already struggling with their own financial needs they may do things like cut down on their own medications they take, or eat less food themselves in order to make things stretch for their grandkids," said Steven Wallace, Associate Director at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
"Sometimes they'll take money out of savings that they had in retirement to make ends meet, so they're really making a sacrifice to do this," added Wallace.
Grandparents like Kathleen Craig receive county money to help raise their grandkids. But grandparents typically receive less than foster parents.
"I get like $350 dollars a month to support both of them and my husband and I are on social security," said Craig, 66, who is raising two grandsons. "He gets a VA pension, so thats all we have to live on."
Bakersfield City Councilman Terry Maxwell and his wife Pauletta say they lost their free time when they began taking care of their two grandchildren four years ago.
"We were very independent when we got them, and now suddenly we have two kids that we have to consider in almost everything you do," said Maxwell. "You always let your kids know that if anything happens you're going to be there for them, that if God forbid something might happen and you had to take care of their kids you would do it in a heart beat. But you don't think that that's ever really going to happen."
The Henrietta Weill Memorial Child Guidance clinic offers a number of services to grandparents and their grandchildren. All services are free of charge for qualifying families and can be accessed by calling (661) 322-1021. Below is a complete list of services offered by the clinic:
Parent Services
Kinship Support Services: The Kinship Support Services Program provides supportive services to these caregivers and children to help strengthen their families and to provide opportunities for success.
Time Limited Family Reunification: Time-Limited Family Reunification (TLFR) helps qualifying families whose children have been removed by C.P.S. to reunify as quickly as possible. Each TLFR family has a care coordinator who becomes their advocate. The care coordinator identifies and helps them find resources, meet any needs they may have, develop a care plan, and becomes a support system throughout this difficult process.
Parent Education: The Henrietta Weill Memorial Child Guidance Clinic offers free comprehensive services for families who are in Family Reunification or Family Maintenance through the Kern County Department of Human Services. Our goal is to assist parents through case management services, parenting classes, counseling, and/ or visit coaching so that they will be successful in bringing their families together even stronger and better than before.
Parent Support Groups: The Henrietta Weill Memorial Child Guidance Clinic offers free parent support groups to provide parents and caregivers with up-to-date community resource information, bonding activities to be used with their children, support for specific parenting concerns and issues, and allow parents to obtain additional parenting tips through the use of videos, topic discussions, and multimedia presentations.
Children Services
Outpatient Services: This program serves children up to the age of 21 who exhibit emotional and behavioral problems. These services include individual, family, and group therapy as well as case management services provided by intervention specialists.
Substance Abuse Services: This program serves children up to the age of 21 who exhibit emotional and behavioral problems. These services include individual, family, and group therapy as well as case management services provided by intervention specialists.
Additional Services
Community Services: Through outreach consultation services, Clinic staff provides mental health education and training to teachers, school administrators, agencies, service, groups and the general public.
Psychiatric Evaluations and Medication Support When appropriate, the child and family will meet with a board-certified child psychiatrist for an evaluation to diagnose the child and determine if medication support services may be beneficial.
