GRACIA Project: Promoting the Health of Custodial Grandparents through Community Collaboration

Grandparents who are raising grandchildren are a high health risk population whose own physical and mental health may be compromised. Mid live and older surrogate parents tend to have higher rates of chronic illness and depression. The greater risk of poverty, depression and poor physical health may impact not only the grandparent's well-being as they age but their capacity to continue as surrogate parents until the children reach maturity. This paper presents findings from the first year of The Grandparent Resources and Caregiver Initiative Alliance (GRACIA) Project, a community collaboration between William Paterson University of New Jersey and Paterson Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies, Inc. to provide health and supportive services to custodial grandparents.

Through a multidisciplinary team model, grandparent and relative caregivers are assessed for physical and mental health, and supportive (e.g. child care, legal, housing ) needs. Health services include physical health assessments conducted by faculty nurse practitioners and graduate nursing students, linkage to ongoing primary health care and screenings. Health promotion is conducted through a stress management program. Counseling services are provided by graduate counseling students.

GRACIA is a replicable model for metropolitan areas with ever increasing numbers of custodial grandparents. The presentation will discuss client self reported physical and mental health, stress, access to and utilization of medical care, and self-care patterns. Public health issues that are barriers for maintaining and promoting caregiver health will be discussed with programmatic and policy recommendations.