Dayton Children's Hospital's Foster and Kinship Program is a medical home for children and
adolescents who are either in the custody of a local children services agency or are in care
with a kinship provider. Our program serves children in the custody of Montgomery County
and also other local surrounding counties' children services agencies.
Our team consists of full time nursing staff, a care coordinator, community health workers,
social work staff, a board-certified child abuse pediatrician and a general pediatrician with
special interest and training in trauma-informed care.
Comprehensive medical record review is completed for each child, with focus on creating a
detailed summary of a child's past medical, developmental, behavioral/emotional and
psychosocial history.
Our program provides developmental and behavioral/emotional screening, caretaker support,
all needed medical care including examination, vision/hearing screening, immunizations,
laboratory and/or radiology analysis as indicated, referral to pediatric specialists, linkage with
community mental health providers and/or community support services.
Our community health workers provide support including in-home follow up for
various resources to kinship care providers.
As a medical home, our goal is to maintain services uninterrupted if a child or adolescent is
reunified with a prior caretaker, or is later returned to county custody. Children who are
reunified or are permanently placed are welcome to remain at our office for ongoing medical
and psychosocial care, and caretakers are encouraged to do so.
Our social worker and care coordinator provide ongoing outreach to assure children continue
to receive excellent continuity of care with our program, or in another community setting if
this is optimal for the child and caretaker.
County child protective service agencies receive detailed medical reports and ongoing updates
from physician staff and also from the care coordinator and social worker.
Our staff help to further educate caretakers in trauma-informed care practices to limit
disruption in care.A special caretaker group led by our program's general pediatrician is held
monthly for support and ongoing education.