STATEWIDE (NEWS CENTER Maine) - Sandy Pinard of Sabbatus always thought she and her husband were alone in their challenges raising a second-round family. "I only thought maybe it was a handful of people in the state of Maine," she said.
They raised three of their grandkids for more than a decade. The kids were removed from their parents' home due to problems with domestic violence and drugs. "It was hard, because you have to be a grandmother and you have to be a mother," Sandy said. "You wear two hats. A lot of the times I want to give them the extra cookie or the extra lollipop because that's what I do. That's being a grandmother."
Sandy Pinard is far from alone. Maine has an estimated 14,600 children living with grandparents, according to a national database of "grandfamilies."
A "grandfamily" is a household in which kids are being raised by their grandparents, not their parents.
Nationwide, it is estimated that some 2.6 million grandparents are raising their grandkids.
Experts say a spike in "grandfamilies" in the last decade is largely due to the opioid epidemic. A study from the American Bar Association found that the number of children in foster care is on the rise. "Relatives are coming to the rescue and raising these children whose parents are unable to parent due to heroin and other opioid use or treatment, incarceration, or overdose death," Ana Beltran writes.
As the opioid epidemic continues to rip children from their parents, federal and state governments are working on ways to provide help to the grandparents saving the day.
Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) recently sponsored a bill to create a federal task force aimed at helping grandparents raising their grandkids. The bill, called the "Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act," has passed through the House and Senate and is now on its way to President Trump's desk to be signed into law.
Sandy Pinard welcomes the help, and appreciates the recognition. "We didn't have that support [when we were raising our kids]," she said. "We were just kind of flying by the seat of our pants."
Grandfamilies are just one side effect of the harrowing opioid epidemic. More than 60 percent of kids in DHHS care come as a result of parental drug use as a risk factor, according to Maine's Department of Health and Human Services. NEWS CENTER Maine is continuing the conversation about child welfare in our state. Please join us Thursday, June 28th at 7 PM for a 30 minute TV special: Protecting Maine's Children.
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