Extended parental care

Following their hospitalization, all infants were placed with foster parents or in the care of extended-family members. Four infants were discharged to relatives and eight infants were placed in foster care. Later, two of the foster children were also... 

Such arrangements had greater stability where the extended family was involved, as they were often all too aware of the potential costs to the children and wanted to protect them from possible harm. As we shall see in Chapter 7 the role of the extended family in taking responsibility to care for children was often critical in protecting them from harm and preventing their removal into care. However there were other instances in these data where parents did not have the option to call on others and had made the decision to leave the child unsupervised alone at home whilst they went out to buy drugs. The following is an example of this ... 

The burden of caring was not limited to their siblings, however. Their sense of responsibility extended to the parent with the drug problem. They understood that drugs made their parents vulnerable and made many efforts to counter this. 

These grandparents and other relative carers were unequivocal as to the importance of having taken on the care of children. Even so, they acknowledged that there were costs, whether emotional, social, financial or health wise and, in different measure, everyone in the family was affected by it. The chapter begins with a consideration of the continuum of care that was being provided by the extended family as reported by parents and relative carers, before moving on to consider the effects that this had on them all. 

There were also cases where social work had removed children from their parents as a matter of emergency. The extended family might have to make an immediate decision to take children, knowing that they would be placed in foster or other care if they said no ... 

The numbers of extended family members who have taken on the care of children because of their parent s drug problem might evade precise quantification but all the signs are that their contribution is substantial and signifi-... 

Why did Dr. P carefully choose the psychiatrist that she sent Laura to see How might Laura s insurance options affect the choice of psychiatrist Dr. P thought the critical importance of the therapeutic relationship extended to the psychiatrist-patient relationship as well. She chose a psychiatrist who had excellent interpersonal skills, as well as clinical competence. Fortunately, Dr. S could be partially paid by Laura s health insurance. If not. Dr. P would have had a dilemma. Should she ask the parents to pay out of pocket because the therapeutic relationship was so critical Or should she pick another physician on Laura s list of providers and hope for the best ... 

Note that these life history tactics are typical of a so-called K-selected species (Pianka, 1970) extended age to maturity, iteroparity with a small clutch size, parental (maternal, in this case) care, and a relatively long life. If one agrees with the principles of r- and K-selection theory, then one might suspect that Plethodon cinereus inhabits a highly competitive environment. This, indeed, is true. 

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