Vision Statement
We have a dream that foster care will be a valued, healing, healthy, and empowering resource for children, teens, families, and communities, so that every child and teen in foster care will thrive in a forever family.
We will achieve this by engaging communities and their leaders in supporting children, teens, and their families with an effective, multidisciplinary, integrated, and comprehensive continuum of care.
Welcome
Welcome to the Healthy Foster Care America (HFCA) Web site. This site was developed as a place where professionals and partner organizations can find the latest information, facts, and figures on the health care of children and teens in foster care, including ready-to-use tools and resources. Foster parents or kin may also find these materials helpful in caring for the health needs of children and teens in their care. In the future, A Special Place will provide more health information for children and teens in care, parents (foster and birth) or kin.
If you have any questions or need any additional information, feel free to contact us!
Sarah Springer, MD, FAAP, and Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP
Background
Foster care is intended to provide temporary, safe homes (placement) for children and teens during a time of family crisis. There are lofty goals for the children and teens in foster care.
The primary goals for children and teens in foster care include:
- Safety
- Permanency
- Health and well-being
Other important goals include:
- Stable placement in a family setting while in foster care
- Birth family support and rehabilitative services
- Reunification of the child or teen with their parents or extended family, when safe and appropriate
- Adoption by a “forever family” for children or teens who are not able to be reunited with their original families
- Nurturing children and teens toward independent living when reunification and adoption are not possible
At this Web site, you can read about children and teens in foster care, the health challenges they face, how to care for them effectively, and what HFCA is doing to help.
The persons whose photographs are depicted on this Web site are professional models.
They have no relation to the issues discussed. Any characters they are portraying are fictional.
