Stepping into the breach

• Published date: 13 August 2021

‘IT WAS methamphetamine then, and it’s methamphetamine now.’’

Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Trust NZ chief executive Kate Bundle, who has been involved in the charitable trust since its inception in 1999, says methamphetamine abuse is the No1 reason why more grandparents are raising their grandchildren in New Zealand.

In 2016 the trust commissioned a survey of 1100 grandparents raising their grandchildren, which revealed 86% of situations were a result of methamphetamine use by the children’s parents.

Ms Bundle said at present, the trust had 5699 members (encompassing 8500 to 9000 caregivers), 17 of them in Waitaki.

It was not just grandparents ‘‘stepping up’’ to care for children whose parents were battling with drug addictions, Ms Bundle said. From older siblings to great-great-grandparents and great-aunts, many other family members were taking on the fulltime care of young children.

This was usually because the child’s parents had developed a dependency on methamphetamine and it had ‘‘robbed them of the ability to be effective parents and put the child’s needs first’’.

Ms Bundle described a financial, emotional and physical toll experienced by caregiver grandparents.

‘‘Imagine being a parent and adding on a few decades.’’

More than 70% of the trust’s members had health issues, but would ‘‘walk over coals’’ for their grandchildren, she said.

As result of becoming primary caregivers, many grandparents lost the ability to socialise and dedicated all their time to supervising their grandchildren.

They often had the stress of dealing with multiple agencies — Oranga Tamariki, family court, schools, social workers, health services — and needed support in doing so.

The trust had local support groups throughout the country, and was looking to recruit a North Otago support group co-ordinator.

Family Works practice manager Debbie Gelling said the number of grandparents who were raising their grandchildren in Otago continued to increase.

Grandparents ended up caring for grandchildren for a variety of reasons, including formal processes by Oranga Tamariki following police or other forms of intervention as a result of an unsafe home life.

For some families, there was an internal agreement in which it is decided the best outcome for everyone would be for the grandparents to become fulltime caretakers.

The primary goal was for uplifted children to remain with family, she said.

For many grandparents, it was a significant life adjustment.

While some grandparents...