Meeting the Healthcare Needs of Children in Foster and Kinship Care

About 424,000 children are currently in foster and kinship care in the United States, with 16,000 foster and kinship children in Ohio. The vast majority of children are placed into care due to neglect, physical abuse, parental substance abuse or abandonment. Almost 40 percent of these children will remain in foster and kinship care for more than two years. 

Obstacles to Healthcare

• Most children entering foster and kinship care do not receive comprehensive developmental or psychological evaluations during placement.
• Medicaid-managed insurance provided to children in foster and kinship care is not accepted by many community providers, so many foster and kinship care parents are forced to use emergency departments and urgent care centers for routine care.
• Nearly one quarter of foster and kinship care children experience three or more placements while in care. One third of children re-enter the child welfare system after being returned home. In most cases, every time a child goes into a new home, he or she is taken to a new doctor with no records of previous healthcare.
• Lack of continuity results in this high-risk group receiving inadequate preventive care as well as under-diagnosis and under-treatment of healthcare problems. 

Special Population Needs

• Between 30 percent and 80 percent of foster and kinship care children have chronic medical problems.
• Up to 70 percent of foster and kinship care children have behavioral concerns.
• As many as 60 percent of foster and kinship care children have developmental delays.
• Children in foster and kinship care who receive specialized comprehensive care have more medical and mental health problems identified, are more likely to receive medical and mental health services, and are more likely to continue to receive follow-up care.
• No other program in Cincinnati currently meets the complex medical needs of foster and kinship children.