Professionals' perspective on support and assistance to grandparents with grandchildren custody

Abstract

Introduction: In Portugal, the Law for in Danger Children and Young People Protection enables the support measure of another family member in a situation in which the child is temporarily removed from their parents and placed under grandparents’ custody. Objective: To find out the professional perspective of the Children and Young People Protection Commissions on which circumstances determine the support measure of another family member in the person of the grandparents and what support and accompaniment is provided to them. Methods: 37 professionals from various national Commissions took part and responded to a survey. Results: This measure stems from the negligent parents´ behaviour, the most frequently mentioned situation of danger was that of a neglected, abandoned or abused child (52.8%). The great majority of the professionals (94.4%) confirm that grandparents already had an emotional bond and played an important role in the family before taking on parental responsibility and that the support given to grandparents is mainly economic (59.5%), with a great deal of lack of knowledge around parental education programmes. Conclusion: Grandparents should have various forms of support, especially psychosocial support, and it seems essential to implement programmes, such as the Parental Education Programme, which has been awaiting regulation since 1999. We suggest rethinking the classification of the support measure with another family member, allowing the extended family to be a form of foster care.

Keywords

• grandparents and grandchildren; family support measure; social support; parenting education