Responsibility Without Community Resources: Informal Kinship Care Among Low-Income, African American Grandmother Caregivers.

Given the importance of community resources in the lives of African American grandmother caregivers, it is imperative to examine and gain a deeper understanding of how grandmothers perceive the availability and accessibility of community resources to meet their caregiving needs. A study using qualitative research methods resulted in three themes: (a) status of traditional helping resources, (b) inappropriate and unresponsiveness of human service agencies, and (c) limited options and alternatives to grandmother caregivers. Each of these themes provides some evidence of what is needed to shape programs and services targeted toward urban grandmother caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]