Overcoming the problem-riddled narrative: Engendering a sense of satisfaction and empowerment with custodial grandparents caring for severely emotionally disturbed children (SED)

The custodial grandparenting literature has grown significantly in the past fifteen years with little or no attention given to intervention. The purpose of this project was to identify need within a local population of custodial grandparents through a systematic review of the national literature and a local needs assessment. This local population of grandparents was systematically evaluated for their socio-emotional needs in response to caring for their severely emotionally disturbed (SED) grandchildren. Participants were administered a demographic questionnaire, the Kansas Parental Satisfaction survey, and an annotated version of the Family Empowerment Scale. A smaller portion of the participant pool was recruited for a semi-structured interview. The result of the needs assessment yielded seven distinct recommendations for an intervention program. This dissertation concludes with a program proposal based upon those recommendations, which incorporates a narrative therapeutic approach. The program proposed is a seminal idea for a group psychotherapy process, rather than psycho-educational, to be administered to custodial grandparents. It attempts to externalize and objectify many of the difficult problems faced by this population so as to relieve the internalized pressure many of these grandparents place on themselves. The ultimate goal is empowerment over the solvable aspects of their problematic situations and to help custodial grandparents to minimize dysynchronization in their own development while meeting the demanding needs of their SED grandchildren.