Montana State University professor’s rural Montana caregivers research featured in Washington Post

Written by Andrew Van Dam, the article discusses how U.S. Census Bureau data shows a sharp shift in the number of grandparents taking care of their grandchildren, partly due to the opioid crisis. It also chronicles the many struggles they face in taking on such responsibility.

“For grandparents still in the workforce or simply needing respite care, the cost of childcare was shocking,” Bailey and her colleagues wrote. “Although many grandparents anticipated child care costs, the current rates were much higher than when they had parented the first time.”