Due to the complexity of health issues and mental health issues that children in foster care are at risk for developing, communities are beginning to design health care services for children in foster care similar to those designed for children with special health care needs. Children in foster care deserve health care, which incorporates components of a Medical Home approach as promoted by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

"A medical home is not a building, house or hospital, but rather an approach to providing health care services in a high-quality and cost-effective manner. When children have extraordinary health care needs, having a medical home can ensure that those needs are met."

Key components of a medical home describe health care services as those that are:

• accessible
• continuous
• comprehensive
• coordinated
• compassionate
• culturally competent
• enabling for family members.

"The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) believes that all infants, children, adolescents, and young adults should have access to a ‘medical home’ that provides comprehensive, coordinated, and family-centered health care."

"In a medical home parents and physicians act as partners to identify and access all the medical and non-medical services needed to help children and their families achieve their maximum potential."

The Caring Community believes that a medical home approach to health care for children in foster care will likely result in healthier outcomes for children in foster care.

For more information on the medical home, in PDF format, click the medical home button below: