The Impoverished Family and Child

52 I Presentation THE IMPOVERISHED FAMILY AND CHILD HARRIETTE PIPES McADOO, Ph.D. Professor School of Social Work Howard University Sixth and Howard Streets, N. W. Washington, D.C. 20059 WOULD LIKE TO begin this discussion on impoverished families and their children with a passage from Längsten Hughes's "The Negro Mother": ChUdren, I come back today To teU you a story of the long dark way That I had to climb, that I had to know In order that the race might live and grow.1 Today we are climbing up a long, dark, and thorny way. Our families are facing situations as bad as the Depression. They may even be as bad as the time of African enslavement. Families are increasingly facing impoverishment throughout our country. When we look at the poor children who are underserved by the health and social service professions, we tend not to examine the entire family constellation . But we must remember that most children live in families. Only by providing services to the entire family will we be able to serve the needs of the poor, and increasingly, children of color. I would like to examine the impact of family situations on the health of chUdren along three dimensions: 1) the growing povertization of mothers and fathers who are of color, 2) the health risks for children when poverty is present, and 3) the terrible situation that results when families are unable to care for children and children must enter the foster care system. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Vol. 2, No. 1, Summer 1991 McAdoo 53 The increasing povertization of mothers and fathers of color Judith Jones has already presented startling statistics for children at risk.2 They need not be repeated. It can be simply stated that when parents are poor, the health of their children suffers. However, I would like to highlight a few findings from the National Center for Children in Poverty3 that point to the known direct influence of parental poverty on the health of children. 1. Over two-thirds of children under the age of six who are poor are not on welfare. 2. ChUdren under the age of six who live with single mothers are more likely to be poor than are children not living with single mothers. But 38 percent of poor young children live with two married parents. 3. Half of all poor children under the age of six have a parent working or who is looking for work. 4. The majority of single mothers who are living below the poverty level are working every day. What do these statistics mean? They mean that poor parents are not sitting at home and not working. They are dependent upon welfare for survival. As we talk about how to provide health care to young children, we often miss this most basic point. Most children who are underserved are poor, but their parents are working or attempting to find work. These parents are simply not paid adequate wages that would allow them to meet the healtii care needs of their children. We know that an increasing proportion of the labor market will be composed of people of color and women as we enter the next century. Increasingly , there will be many more single mothers, the most vulnerable group. These workers wiU become the victims of wage deflation and will find it even more difficult to provide health care for their children.4 We must not forget a basic fact. The most efficient way of improving health services for young children is to ensure that their parents are paid a living wage. No other means of providing direct health care for poor children can have such an immediate and direct impact upon the family. Parents must be empowered, through job training and employment services, to earn enough to provide the medical services that their children require. Those who are not working need to be provided support and services that will allow them to enter the labor market. This is as it should be. But we are now Uving in a period of diminishing resources, a time when programs and services are being cut...