This Web site offers resources for all of the health care professionals involved in providing health care for children or teens in foster care, including pediatricians, family practice physicians, nurse practitioners, and others. The resources are intended to assist all health care professionals in improving their primary care office setting so that each child or teen in foster care receives health care in a medical home.

We have developed information for all health care professionals - those who are just starting to see children and teens in foster care; those who have more than a beginner's interest in providing health care for children and teens in foster care, but are not an expert or specialist in the field; and those who see a lot of children and teens in foster care, have a long-term interest in this topic, or specialize in treating children and teens in foster care.

To access resources, such as forms for use in your practice or organization, tip sheets, educational materials for families, and links to pertinent Web sites, visit the Resource Library and search by the audience "Health Care Professionals" .

The most prevalent health need of children and teens in foster care is mental health. Children and teens enter foster care after experiencing multiple childhood traumas that negatively impact their emotional health. In addition to prior trauma, even the most resilient child or teen has to contend with separation from their family, ongoing losses, and the uncertainty of foster care. Thus, children and teens need timely mental health evaluation and treatment. The mental health professional then has to decide upon a course of treatment in the context of the child's trauma history, individual strengths, family supports, and permanency plan. One of the biggest challenges for the therapist is helping a traumatized child develop a sense of self-efficacy and build relationships in an ever-changing world.

To access resources and materials that mental health and other professionals can use in practice to help support foster parents and others in assuring that children receive high-quality and comprehensive health care, visit the Resource Library and search by the audience "Mental Health Professionals" .

Aside from the foster parents and kin caregivers, child welfare professionals may be closer than anyone else to a child or teen in foster care. This includes pediatricians, other physicians in medical specialties, child advocates (court appointed to represent the best interest of the child), psychologists, and therapists. Sometimes, child welfare professionals are constant in a child's life even when there are changes in foster parents or other primary caregivers.

Children and teens in foster care often come from families in which the parents cannot provide adequate care and safety. Children may enter foster care due to a variety of reasons, some of which may include abuse, neglect, domestic violence, and the loss of a parent due to death or incarceration. A child's removal from his home in which those conditions existed may suddenly become the responsibility of a total stranger or a relative who must assume a new and different role in relation to the child. A child's separation from what is familiar to her is traumatic even though the separation was in her best interest, and the most appropriate plan to assure safety and well-being.

To access resources like important checklists, forms, and handouts to help child welfare professionals support foster parents and others in assuring that children receive high quality and comprehensive health care, visit the Resource Library and search by the audience "Child Welfare Professionals" .

Children and teens typically enter foster care with a history of acute and often complex trauma that results from child abuse, neglect, and exposure to violence. Judges, attorneys, guardian ad litems (GALs), Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs), and other child advocates play an important role in making sure a child or teen in foster care is cared for properly and remains in good health. 

Judges need to understand how health, development, placement, and safety affect positive and permanent outcomes for the children and teens who come before them. Attorneys, GALs, and other child advocates must protect the rights and address the needs of their child and teen clients. Managing the child's court case, monitoring his foster home stay and visitation, and advocating for the child's medical, dental, and other health care needs are significant functions of the legal professional working in child welfare. 

While advocating for the best permanency plan for the child or teen, whether that means family reunification, adoption, legal guardianship, placement with a relative or some other appropriate permanency option, legal professionals should always ensure that the health care needs of children and teens in foster care are addressed.

To access resources help educate legal professionals about the challenges and needs of children and teens in foster care, along with hand-outs that legal professionals can pass on to parents (foster and birth) and kin, visit the Resource Library and search by the audience "Judges, Attorneys, and or Child Advocates" .

Perhaps no group of children is so fundamentally and intimately affected by government policies as children in foster care. State, federal, and local policies set the framework for determining when and how children may be removed from the home, what types of settings and services are available to them, and whether and how family reunification takes place. When children are taken into state custody, policymakers determine such basic issues as where they live, where they attend school, and what kinds of resources are available to heal the physical, mental, or emotional harm they may have suffered.

Several decades of research has firmly established that the health care needs of children in out-of-home care far exceed those of other children living in poverty. Despite the overwhelming evidence of need, studies consistently demonstrate that many health care needs for children in the foster care system go unmet.

AAP Policy Priorities for Children and Teens in Foster Care:

To access tools, resources, and links to support policymakers as they learn about the health issues and needs of children and teens in foster care, visit the Resource Library and search by the audience "Policymakers and Administrators" .

A special section of this Web site has been developed to educate children, teens, and families about the health issues and needs of children and teens in foster care. Included in this section are some of the most difficult challenges often faced by children and teens in care - a result of deep emotional distress about their families and themselves. Because children and teens have less mature coping skills than adults, this emotional distress is expressed as behaviors; these behaviors are, in fact, a cry for help and understanding. We have provided some basic information about these areas that are of particular importance to the health and well-being of children and teens in foster care.

Visit A Special Place for Children and Families

To access additional resources, visit the Resource Library and search by the audience "Children and Families" .