Supplementary services are the second line of defense, called upon when a parent-child relationship is seriously impaired because a significant aspect of the parental role is inadequately covered but the family configuration is such that, with supplementation, the child can continue to live at home without harm. Financial maintenance programs of all kinds-assistance as well as insurance-are, in effect, supplementary services.
Supplementary services include the income maintenance programs, day care, and homemaker service. There is an overlap between the supplementary services and the supportive services. As one aspect of their role is supplemented, the parents are able to discharge others more competently. Where the parental role is left permanently vacant because of death, illegitimacy, desertion, divorce, or separation, or is temporarily unfilled because of imprisonment, military service, illness, or unemployment, serious dislocation of the parent- child system takes place and necessitates some arrangement for role supplementation. One of the principal roles of the parent is to provide for the child and ensure his healthy development.
Unemployment, disability, or death of the wage earner may result in the loss of family income. Workman's compensation, unemployment insurance, and the Old Age, Survivors', and Disability Insurance (OASDI) are social insurance programs that provide for income maintenance for the family faced with such situations. Public assistance programs-general assistance and the Aid to Families of Dependent Children program-cover some of the contingencies provided for by the social insurances and for others as well. Thus assistance may be granted to families through desertion, separation, divorce, imprisonment or illegitimacy.
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