The opioid crisis has led to a crisis of grandparents, and even great-grandparents, raising young children — something U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, wants the federal government to take a more active role in addressing.

“It’s a challenge, the likes of which I don’t think our country has ever seen before,” Casey said during an appearance in Westmoreland County.

Estimates put the number of grandchildren being raised by grandparents or other relatives at 2.5 million, including 100,000 in Pennsylvania.

Casey, ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, convened a conference Tuesday at Saint Vincent College to take a closer look at that and other pressing issues facing senior citizens.

This week, a Grandfamilies Advisory Council created by a bill Casey co-sponsored last year will meet in Washington, D.C., to develop online resources — what Casey called a one-stop shop — for grandparents dealing with unfamiliar parenting issues.

“The world has changed in a lot of ways,” he said.

But Casey said more needs to be done, especially in the area of cash assistance for grandparents taking care of grandchildren.

“What if you’ve saved for years for retirement, and all of a sudden, because you’re trying to meet the obligation (of child care) in real time, you’re expending money from retirement savings? Most seniors, when they reach that point, have tried to achieve a measure of security that can be completely undermined because of the obligation they’ve taken on,” he said. “That act of love is very expensive sometimes.”

Charlotte Stephenson, a grandparent who appeared on a panel Tuesday with Casey, said reforms are needed to help ease the burdens of child-rearing faced by older Americans.

“We grandparents who are raising grandchildren, we are the protection for that next generation,” she said.

Stephenson, 60, of Mt. Lebanon, has been raising her grandson, Cameron, 8, since he was 4 months old. That’s when she learned that her daughter was addicted to opioids.

“In addition to the fear and crisis of trying to save our daughter, we had a grandson to care for, and then we had a legal battle on our hands to keep him under our roof,” she said.

The family spent $85,000 in legal fees trying to keep Cameron’s father, who later died of a drug overdose, from gaining custody, she said.

Cameron’s mother currently has two years, four months of sobriety, but he still lives with his grandparents.

“This kind of situation can hit a grandparent like a train. All of a sudden, you’re in a family crisis — you don’t know what to do, where to turn,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson is Pennsylvania’s representative on the Grandfamilies Advisory Council meeting this week in Washington.

Casey thanked Stephenson for her sacrifices.

“That act of love should not just be recognized and celebrated — that act of love should be the subject of our attention in terms of direct help,” he said.

As a follow-up to the 2018 Supporting Grandparents Raising Grandchildren Act, Casey introduced in May the Grandfamilies Act, which would provide more direct assistance to grandparents and older caregivers.

Provisions include:

Expanding the criteria under which children can receive Social Security benefits. Making Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, cash assistance more readily available to grandfamilies. Offering support for grandfamily housing. (Currently, seniors can lose their subsidized housing by taking in a grandchild). Promoting temporary guardianship laws that enable grandparents to make important decisions on behalf of the child.

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