1.) What is your background and how did you come to be an expert on the subject of grandparents and other relatives raising children?
I am a licensed clinical social worker. When my sister passed away in 1983, she left her eight-year-old child with my parents. I saw first-hand the issues that they faced. After I graduated from my master's program, I did outpatient therapy where I encountered many other families in my parents' situation. Both the relatives and the children were mirroring the same issues.

2.) Since you've been working with grandparents and relatives raising children, what is the most significant change you've noticed with this group? How have society's attitude changed?
The increased numbers of these types of families has floored me. When I started, I never imagined that the first group would mushroom into ten groups in my county alone. The need for support and information shows me the demand and need — which is why I wrote the book. I had no information to send them or to help them. In the past, only grandparents were in the situation, now it's all relatives — cousins, aunts, uncles etc.

3.) What is the biggest challenge that grandparents and relatives raising children face these days?
The biggest challenges for grandparents are dealing with children who are coming to them in various stages and ages of development, and that parenting has changed since the time they raised their children. Many of the old ways of parenting are not acceptable now. In addition, children are coming to them now with so many problems — psychiatric, physical, learning, social — and they don't have experience working with emotional distraught children. Grandparents need a lot of help.

Other challenges faced include: dealing with the dependency system (which is a nightmare for everyone); meeting new financial demands (especially for those on fixed incomes); and dealing with people in bureaucracy without adequate information on entitlement resources and benefits. We need to educate grandparents and other caretakers on what resources are available and what red tape they may face in obtaining them. Finally, grandparents are often isolated and lonely and their lifestyle has undergone drastic change — they may lose friends, their social life may dwindle and they may not know anyone in the same situation. One of the things that can help the most is joining a support group can really help grandparents understand that they are not alone in this situation.

4.) What do you like about the Grandparenting: Enriching Lives video? What do you hope grandparents will take away from it?
I think that it will be really helpful for the general grandparenting population. I look forward to Civitas doing a project on grandparents and relatives raising children.

5.) If you could leave grandparents with an essential piece of advice, what would it be?
I would tell the relative caregiver: You are not alone. There is help out there. Your roller coaster feelings are very normal — one day depressed, then angry, then happy. The range is normal, and you will experience them all. I encourage you to get involved with people in the same situation. This will help you and your kids know that you are not alone in the situation.