Troubled Teens Resources

Something parents never imagine doing is raising their grandchildren. But teen age drug abuse doesn’t live in a vacuum. Often irresponsible behavior results in “unwanted” children that the teen can’t possibly raise. Who does? You do.

When addictions started in youth continue into adulthood, marriages fail, addictions escalate, and there seem to be more and more grandparents planning how to raise a second family than planning for retirement.

“In Wisconsin, one in 10 grandparents will be the primary caregiver of a grandchild at some point in their lives, according to the Grandparents Raising Grandchildren….
[…]
Across the country, the number of children living with grandparents with no parent in the household has grown 51 percent from 1990 to 2003, according to a UW-Extension publication on “Wisconsin Families: Issues and Demographics, Grandparents Caring for Grandchildren.”

“I think the use of drugs and alcohol, incarceration and mental health issues are all adding to that,” said Claire Culbertson, Caregiver Program coordinator for the Area Agency on Aging in Dane County…”

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“That’s why we nipped it in the bud,” Karen explained. She had just finished months of research into girls boarding schools for the next school year. Karen was very frightened that she’d be in the same position as her older sister whose daughter started using drugs as a high school freshman and was pregnant by her sophomore year. Abortion was not an option.

“I can see the writing on the wall, Karen fretted. “She gets absolutely worthless counseling at school, unless it’s from her drug friends and there are too many drugs at her school. I can’t fight this alone. At boarding school she has a fighting chance, but not in this school system.”

Don’t run the risk of ignoring your troubled teenagers self-destructive behavior. Too often the results last far longer than the span of their teen age years.