Caregiver Resources

Harris County Long Term Care Mediation - offers free, on-site mediation at participating nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Harris County.
www.ltcmediation.org

Family to Family Network
www.familytofamilynetwork.org

Texas Southern University - Aging & Intergenerational Resources
www.tsu.edu/about/administration/
research/administrative/COTF/aging.asp

AARP Webplace:Caregiving
www.aarp.org/life/caregiving/

Caregiver Resources
www.aoa.gov/eldfam/ For_Caregivers/For_Caregivers.asp

Texas Department on Aging
www.tdoa.state.tx.us/

Behavioral and Social Research
www.nia.nih.gov/research/
extramural/behavior/

FirstGov for Seniors
www.seniors.gov/

The Comfort of Home
www.comfortofhome.com/newsletters/
newsletters.html

Family Caregiving 101.org
www.familycaregiving101.org

National Family Caregiver Support Program
www.aoa.gov/prof/aoaprog/caregiver/
caregiver.asp

Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc.
www.medicareadvocacy.org

Center for Medicare Education
www.MedicareEd.org

The Kaiser Family Foundation
www.kff.org

Medicare Rights Center
www.medicarerights.org

SENIORLINK
1-866-797-9697
www.seniorlink.com

Children of Aging Parents
1-800-227-7294
www.caps4caregivers.org

Family Caregiver Alliance
415-434-3388
www.caregiver.org

National Alliance for Caregiving
www.caregiving.org

National Family Caregivers Association
1-800-896-3650
www.nfcacares.org

Well Spouse Foundation
1-800-838-089
www.wellspouse.org

American Bar Association
Commission on Law and Aging
202-662-8690
www.abanet.org/aging

Rosalyn Carter Institute Caregivers Program
http://rci.gsw.edu/gsta12.htm

National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys
520-881-4005
www.naela.org/

National Senior Citizens Law Center
202-289-6976
www.nsclc.org

MatherLifeWays© - Empowering Caregivers
http://www.matherlifeways.com/
re_empoweringfamily.asp

St. Andrew's Resources for Seniors: Eldercare & Caregiver Resource Center
http://www.standrews1.com/resource_center/
caregiver_facts_caregivers_workplace.html

Anti-aging quiz: Secrets to a longer, healthier life
Click on above link to get to the quiz.
http://health.yahoo.com has this and much more caregiver information

Web sites – Grandparents and others Raising Children

Texas Cooperative Extension
The Texas A&M University System
Grandparents Raising Grandkids
Texas Cooperative Extension, in association with the area Agencies on Aging of Texas, the Texas Legal Services Center and through a grant from the Brookdale Foundation, website serves grand-parenting needs. Whether the grandparent is looking a support group in his/her area or need some tips on how to help the child with home work, this website should be able to provide the information the grandparent may need to make their parenting experience successful and rewarding.
grandparentsraisinggrandkids.tamu.edu/

SeniorCitizens.Com: Grandparentng: Grandparent as Parents
www.seniorcitizens.com/k/gasp.html

GrandsPlace
GrandsPlace is a Web site that is dedicated to supporting grandparents and other relatives raising others’ children. It is open to members and non-members of GrandsPlace, and provides opportunities for grandparents to provide comments and to gather information.
www.grandsplace.com

Grand Parent Again
Grand Parent Again is a Web site that offers information about education, legal support, support groups, and other organizations for grandparents raising grandchildren.
www.grandparentagain.com

Caregivers for Adolescent Girls/The National Women's Health Information Center/A Project of the Office on Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The Parent/Caregiver section provides resources and links to parent/caregiver information to deal with some of the issues facing adolescent girls.
www.4girls.gov/parents/

AARP Grandparent Information Center (GIC)
The AARP Grandparent Information Center (GIC) provides information about services and programs that can help improve the lives of grandparent-headed households. The GIC also offers Spanish-language publications.
www.aarp.org/grandparents/

Grandparents can search the National Database of Grandparent Support Groups at
www.aarp.org/grandparents/
searchsupport

Generations United
Generations United is a national organization that focuses solely on promoting intergenerational strategies, programs, and policies. This site has several fact sheets about grandparents and other relatives raising children.
www.gu.org

National Council on Aging BenefitsCheckUp
A free service to help older Americans and their families identify saye and federal assistance programs. The service is confidential, and takes only a few minutes to complete.
www.benefitscheckup.org

The American Bar Association (ABA)
The ABA provides information about how to find legal assistance, even if you can’t afford a lawyer. Information about the judicial system is available as well.
www.abanet.org/home.html

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF)
CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and provides information about children’s issues such as health insurance, child care, and school age care.
www.childrensdefense.org

Brookdale Foundation
Brookdale Foundation Group consists of the Brookdale Foundation, The Glendale Foundation and Ramapo Trust. focus on the needs and challenges of America’s elderly population. Major funding initiatives include:
• The Group Respite Program, begun in 1988, assists community agencies in developing a social model, respite service for people with Alzheimer’s disease and their families (caregivers)
• The Relatives as parents Program (RAPP), initiated in 1991, is designed to encourage and promote the creation or expansion of services for grandparents and other relatives who have taken on the responsibility of surrogate parenting.
www.brookdalefoundation.org/brkhello.html

Kinship Care Initiatives in Texas
In Texas, public and private agencies and grassroots coalitions of grandparents and other relative caregivers have begun working together to expand the services available to kinship caregivers who are caring for children outside of the foster care system.

• Support for Kinship Care Providers: University of Houston Parent Education Project offers the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Program to grandparents and other relatives providing kinship care in Houston. The program is located at Thompson Elementary School in south Houston. It provides weekly meetings, educational classes, and field trips. The program also offers referrals to kinship care providers for resources in the area. The program uses an in-house therapist and a family resource coordinator to address the needs and concerns of the kinship caregivers. Contact: Angie Grindon, Director at 713-743-5491.

• Parenting Skills for Houston Kinship Caregivers: Escape Family Resource Center offers Circle of Love, a parenting course for kinship caregivers and the children they are raising in the Houston area. The six-week course includes such topics as how to deal with the absence of the biological parents, caregivers’ loss of their roles as traditional grandparents, how to ease transitions for children, helping everyone to maintain a positive relationship with the biological parent, and a broad range of communication, problem solving, and family living skills. Caregivers and children are divided into separate discussion groups and are then brought back together at the end of class to explore relevant issues as a family. Classes are free. Contact: Jennifer Montes, Program Support, Circle of Love, at 713-942-9500.

Kinship Care and Texas’s Foster Care System
Sometimes children in the care of the states are placed in foster care with grandparents or other relatives. In Texas, the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (DPRS) reports.

• The DePelchin Children’s Center in Houston has established the Kin Can Program. The program seeks to identify relatives of children in foster care in order to find safe and permanent placements with the kin or to foster long-term relationships. The Center also offers parenting training and support open to kinship care families. 713-802-7634

Other Supports for Texas Kinship Care Families
Children raised by kinship caregivers are often eligible for a range of state and federal programs. In most cases, kinship caregivers may apply for these programs on a child’s behalf even though they are not the child’s parents or legal guardians. Some examples of these programs include:

• Health Insurance
Grandparents and other relative caregivers may apply for free or low-cost health insurance on behalf of the children they are raising trough the TexCare Partnership, which includes Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). In some cases, caregivers may also be eligible for free coverage under Medicaid.
www.texcarepartnership.com

• Cash Assistance
Cash assistance may be available to children and their grandparents and other relative caregivers through the Texas Works program. In addition to monthly child-only payments for eligible children, Texas Works offers a one-time supplemental payment of $1,000 to grandparents who are the primary caretakers of their grandchildren. To be eligible, grandparents must be 45 years of age or older and have a family income that is at or below 20% of the poverty level. Kinship care families may also be eligible for food stamps to help meet their children’s food and nutrition needs.
www.dhs.state.tx.us/
programs/Texasworks/index.html

• State Laws and Policies
Sometimes kinship caregivers find it difficult to obtain services their children need, such as medical care or education. In addition to the state’s child guardianship and custody laws, the following law may be helpful to kinship caregivers:

Medical Consent (Tex.Fam.Code.Ann. §§32.001 seq.): This law allows a child’s grandparent, adult sibling, aunt or uncle and designated others to consent to medical, dental, psychological, and surgical treatment for a child when the child’s parent or guardian cannot be contacted and has not given notice that he or she opposes the treatment. Laws change and are subject to different interpretations. These general descriptions are not intended as legal advice in any particular situation.

Additional Links

Caring Connections - It's About How You LIVE! Free resources on end-of-life issues -- Caring Connections, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is a national consumer engagement initiative to improve care at the end of life, supported by a grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Caring Connections provides free resources, information and motivation for actively learning about end-of-life resources; promotes awareness of and engagement in efforts to increase access to quality end-of-life care; helps people connect with the resources they need, when they need them and brings together community, state and national partners working to improve end-of-life care. -- please visit www.caringinfo.org and www.endoflifecoalitions.org - free resources for communities working to improve end-of-life care -- HelpLine - 800.658.8898

www.familycaregiversonline.net -- Family Caregivers Online, An easy to use online education and information resource, sponsored by the Area Agency on Aging, for anyone helping older adults.

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