Grandparents Raising Grandchildren: Key Practice Issues
Course #71583 - $30 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
This course will examine the scope of custodial grandparenting in the United States. It will also give an overview of the demographics of these grandparents. The range of social, psychological, economic, family, mental health, and physical/health implications of being a custodial grandparent will be discussed. Given these clinical issues, clinicians will be alerted to appropriate services for grandparents parenting grandchildren. In order to serve custodial grandparents, practitioners should be fully informed about the life transitions, disruptions, and needs of grandparents and the dynamics of these skipped-generation family structures.
- INTRODUCTION
- HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF MULTIGENERATIONAL LIVING
- AN OVERVIEW OF GRANDPARENT-HEADED HOUSEHOLDS
- CUSTODIAL GRANDPARENTS: AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
- GRANDPARENTING: A CULTURAL CONTEXT
- EFFECTS OF CUSTODIAL GRANDPARENTING
- RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY AND COPING
- THE GRANDCHILDREN'S EXPERIENCES
- ASSESSMENT GUIDELINES WHEN WORKING WITH CUSTODIAL GRANDPARENTS
- INTERVENTIONS AND BEST PRACTICES
- INTERPROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION AND PRACTICE
- CONCLUSION
- RESOURCES
- Works Cited
This course is designed for social workers, mental health counselors, therapists, and other allied health professionals who work with grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.
When grandparents take on the main parenting responsibilities for their grandchildren, both must adjust socially, emotionally, and psychologically to these new roles. The purpose of this course is to provide mental health professionals with the skills necessary to assist grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Discuss the history of grandparents raising their grandchildren both in the United States and internationally.
- Describe the prevalence and characteristics of custodial grandparents in the United States.
- Evaluate the reasons grandparents are raising their grandchildren.
- Analyze the role of culture and ethnicity in custodial grandparenting practices.
- Describe the range of social, psychological, economic, relational, mental health, and physical/health implications of being a custodial grandparent.
- Outline the use of religious/spiritual coping by custodial grandparents.
- Evaluate grandchildren's experiences in skipped generation households.
- Identify best practices for the assessment of families with custodial grandparents.
- Discuss the types of interventions needed for custodial grandparents.
Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, received her Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University, School of Social Work. She has clinical experience in mental health in correctional settings, psychiatric hospitals, and community health centers. In 1997, she received her PhD from UCLA, School of Public Policy and Social Research. Dr. Yick Flanagan completed a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at Hunter College, School of Social Work in 1999. In that year she taught the course Research Methods and Violence Against Women to Masters degree students, as well as conducting qualitative research studies on death and dying in Chinese American families.
Previously acting as a faculty member at Capella University and Northcentral University, Dr. Yick Flanagan is currently a contributing faculty member at Walden University, School of Social Work, and a dissertation chair at Grand Canyon University, College of Doctoral Studies, working with Industrial Organizational Psychology doctoral students. She also serves as a consultant/subject matter expert for the New York City Board of Education and publishing companies for online curriculum development, developing practice MCAT questions in the area of psychology and sociology. Her research focus is on the area of culture and mental health in ethnic minority communities.
Contributing faculty, Alice Yick Flanagan, PhD, MSW, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
Sarah Campbell
The Director of Development and Academic Affairs has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
The purpose of NetCE is to provide challenging curricula to assist healthcare professionals to raise their levels of expertise while fulfilling their continuing education requirements, thereby improving the quality of healthcare.
Our contributing faculty members have taken care to ensure that the information and recommendations are accurate and compatible with the standards generally accepted at the time of publication. The publisher disclaims any liability, loss or damage incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of any of the contents. Participants are cautioned about the potential risk of using limited knowledge when integrating new techniques into practice.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.