Comparing Notes: Canada vs. US
Because of AIDS and general social breakdown, the number of grandparents raising grandchildren increased in the United States between 1980 and 1990 by a phenomenal 44 per cent – and continues to rise. Currently, in the US, 1.5 million children are being raised by grandparents.
Fewer teen pregnancies, fewer young mothers incarcerated and fewer incidents of drug addiction and AIDS in this country mean Canadian percentages are not as dramatic as in the US. As a result of their spiraling numbers, the US is far ahead of Canada when it comes to research and aid given to grandparents trying to cope with parenthood a second time around.
Still, contrary to popular belief, according to Esme Fuller-Thomson, as assosiate professor teaching at the University of Toronto School of Social Work, the average grandparent is this role in the US is not black and/or poor but white and middle-class. However, low-income grandparents have special concerns. “They may not be welcome in subsidized senior housing because they have children,” says Fuller-Thomson.
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In Boston, GrandFamilies House has addressed this issue. It’s an abandoned nursing home transformed into a 27-unit facility which opened in 1998 to specifically accommodate grandparents raising grandchildren. Residents have the benefit of daycare, after-school care, learning and physical fitness programs – and they are assisted in securing government financial support, which is generally more generous than that available in Canada.
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Used with permission from 50Plus.com
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