Amendments to the state’s Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act backed by New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan try to ensure “kinship” families have access to necessary support services.
A growing number of families in the state are made up of guardians caring for family members – often grandparents taking on their grandchildren. Sometimes this is through a formal arrangement involving the state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families, and sometimes not.
Depending on the arrangement, families can sometimes struggle to gain access to state services such as health insurance, financial assistance or other benefits.
Proposed amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act would allow “kinship” guardians to access child support services, and also provides access for additional training for professionals who work with children who have experienced sexual abuse.
The Act was re-authorized last week by the legislature’s The Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The legislation will now need to be approved by the full Senate as well as the House of Representatives before becoming law.
“Grandparents and other relatives who are primary caregivers for children impacted by the opioid crisis are taking on an enormous and crucial responsibility, and they need additional support,” Hassan said.
Margaret Nelson, executive director of the River Center in Peterborough, said the need for additional supports for kinship families has been a long-standing issue in the Monadnock Region. The River Center and Antrim’s Grapevine paired to provide a support group for grandparents raising grandchildren in 2015.
“There has been a growing awareness of this need,” Nelson said. “It’s been growing across the state.”
Diane Yeo of Antrim, a member of the board of directors at the Grapevine and the Kinship Navigator Coordinator at the New Hampshire Children’s Trust, said the Children’s Trust has been working with resource centers to train their staff to help guardians with navigating the often messy systems to access potential benefits. The new amendments proposed to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act are another step in that process, she said.
“The whole idea is to reduce trauma as much as possible in children. That’s the focus,” Yeo said. “If you can reduce trauma, you can help families be successful.”
Yeo, who also serves on the state’s commission to study grandfamilies, has heard many stories from guardians who are struggling to make it work, from the 72-year-old grandmother who stayed in her job so her grandson could have health insurance, to a second cousin who took in her four-year-old relative and struggled to get services because of their indirect relation.
“It’s a big barrier to helping children,” Yeo said.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.