“Our partnership with Nemours helps ensure children in foster care receive the medical attention they need and rightly deserve.”
— Vivian Rapposelli, Secretary of Delaware’s Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families (DSCYF)
Just like foster children need a real home to call their own, they also need a “medical home” they can turn to for their health care — doctors who know them, their health history, and what’s going on with them physically and emotionally. That’s key, considering about half of kids entering foster care have a chronic physical or developmental condition.
Children are especially vulnerable when they transition into and out of foster care or between home placements — they run the risk of having their health needs go unnoticed or unmet altogether. To help prevent kids from falling through the cracks, federal mandate requires states to develop “a plan for the ongoing oversight and coordination of health care services for any child in foster care placement.
Thanks to a partnership we’ve forged with Delaware’s Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families (DSCYF), foster care children who need a medical home in the the First State can find one in our Nemours Foster Care Health Program. Throughout your family’s journey, we’re here to make it easier for kids to get the care they need to grow up as healthy as possible at every age and stage.
Here at Nemours Foster Care Health Program, we can be the medical home for children who need one. And for those that already have (and are able to continue visiting) a medical home, we can offer consultative services — as specialists trained in addressing the unique needs of children in foster care of all ages.
We also can serve as a sort of medical foster home, caring for children while they’re in foster care — and then helping to transition them back to their regular medical home once they’re out of foster care.
We see Delaware’s foster care children, from infants to teens, at the primary care and adolescent clinic located within Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE.
In addition to checking children’s overall health as they grow, we also:
After a child is first placed in a new foster home, our board-certified Nemours pediatricians see children for:
We also like to see foster children on a routine schedule at:
Being a foster family can be incredibly rewarding. You have the opportunity to make a positive impact on a child’s life — offering the hope, stability, and nurturing environment every child needs. Of course, the experience also can be overwhelming and confusing as everyone gets used to each other and the new home dynamic.
When children in foster care have a “medical home,” it helps give them regular, familiar faces (and a place) that they can get to know, trust, and feel comfortable with — which is key for kids who’ve often been through so many changes and challenges in their young lives.
A medical home also ensures that:
Every child’s medical history is incorporated into our award-winning electronic health record (EHR) in order to keep everyone on the same page about the child’s condition and care — at the exact same time. With just a few clicks, any of our care team members can access the child’s entire EHR from any of our locations.
Community pediatricians who follow kids during or after their foster placement can access the child’s EHR (through NemoursLink) to get the medical summary report we prepare and information about every aspect of the child’s care at Nemours. All of this information-sharing makes it much easier for a foster child’s care to be coordinated and continued if the child leaves the state, goes elsewhere for care, or ages out of (gets too old for) the program.
“Very comprehensive and reassuring” — that's what David and Lori Clouser of New Castle, DE, call their family’s introduction to the Nemours Foster Care Health Program. The couple recently opened their home to three siblings, all under 4 years old. One of the physicians saw evidence of chronic ear infections in two of the children and helped the family connect with an ear, nose, and throat specialist. “We knew very little about the children’s medical history,” said David Clouser. “So we were very happy with the thorough exam, developmental screening, and explanations that they gave us.”
Read about the Nemours Foster Care Health Program physicians and social worker.
To schedule a visit or get more information, call (302) 651-4245.
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