Foster Parent Checklist

THE FIRST THING YOU MUST REMEMBER as a Foster/Adoptive Parent is TO TAKE CARE OF YOU... You cannot be the best you can be to advocate for the child in your care unless you make sure your in a good space. What works for one may not work for another. For me I needed to challenge myself so I became a zumba instructor, NOT THAT I would find time to teach, but I needed to do something for me. And guess what I did find a time to teach and take my child with me. In the second quarter of 2018 I will be teaching at church in Hernando 1 or two nights a week. However, if you need a little workout in the morning, believe me it HELPS, endorphins are a natural anti depressant. I get up at 430 AM EST and workout at 445 to 530 doing zumba. If you have a computer and some space I can give you a link to workout with me, I promise you all fitness levels can do it and you will have a great start to the day. Just Remember if your not taking care of you, you can't really be a good parent. Its not selfish, its needed

Checklist of information you will need for placement

1. If you will require daycare when you take placement, make sure this is communicated to your social worker and put in your file.
2. Ask for the medical transport (which is a medical history of the child) and medical permission form (this letter will allow you to sign medical/school/early intervention, etc.).
3. Request the child's social worker, their supervisor, and the APM (area program manager) for their office. Keep a journal of the history of the child while in your care. Documentation is critical – especially keep a history of how the child is before and after visits.
4. Attend your foster care reviews, which are every six months. This is very important for the child in your care, to give and receive information.
5. Ask questions of school age children, especially if it pertains to an IEP (individual education plan). This will be key to what is going with the school and the services that are available for the child.
6. You will become an advocate by need/choice. If you find that any child in your care is having developmental delays, make an appointment with Mass General for their LEAPS program or Children's Hospital for their Developmental Science Program. It can take three weeks to three months to obtain an appointment, but it is crucial for a child with special needs.
7. Request that the child's health insurance be changed to Mass Health Standard – this will save you tons of time and you won't need any referrals.
8. You must bring the child to a doctor within seven days of placement. FYI some children will be very behind on vaccines because of their birth parents’ no DCF.
9. REPORT any bump or bruise. If you don't, you run the risk of DCF or the birth parent filing a 51A report for neglect. Even if these are found unsupported (not guilty) it can ruin your prospect of housing and/or job because they stay attached to your name. There is legislation trying to have these removed, but that hasn't happened yet.
10. Try not to decorate the child's room too much – let them feel like they some power and can decorate it themselves. In this day and age of social media you are sometimes able to obtain family photos from Facebook, etc., to put in their room.
11. Be prepared for not receiving a lot of clothing.  Be prepared for outbursts. Remember, if your house were on fire and you were given five minutes to retrieve your things, that’s how they feel – PLUS they have no family. It may seem overwhelming at first, but try to practice patience and understanding. They are not being "bad" – they are just scared. They are coming to you with an emotional suitcase, and it will take time to see what is in it!
12. If you have some time, go to YouTube and watch two very enlightening foster care videos to give you some insight:
         ReMoved Part 1
         Remember My Story - ReMoved Part 2
13. Lastly, remember that the goal in foster care is reunification. Don't give up on the children. Adoption can happen, but your first action is to make them feel safe, loved, and secure.

Clothing

Savers (a Boston area thrift store chain) always has 50% off all clothing on holidays and Sundays with a rewards card (it’s free – get one prior to a sale). Walmart is always good for kids’ clothing. Contact me if you need baby items and I will try to help you locate a source.

If you find that you have an emergency placement and need clothing, please contact me – I will find a way to help you. Please remember if you agree to an emergency placement you are supposed to get a gift card to help with necessary items for the child. Cradle to Crayons also has a diaper bank. If you run out and buy diapers in an emergency DO NOT use CVS diapers – they will leak like crazy. Walgreens and Target have the best no-name diaper options if you’re not using Pampers/Huggies/Luvs.  The Toys R US premium brand is pretty good as well, but NOT their value brand. If you take in a child under five, apply for WIC – you can usually get an appointment within a week, since a lot of people do not show up for their appointments. This will help with formula, which can be very expensive. WIC also has some great workshops for parents and foster parents of children under five.

Mid-June 2015 I will have clothing available for emergency placement. They will be separated by age, gender, and size. It will be enough for a couple of days until you get your gift card, as you are supposed to. THIS IS THE PROCEDURE for ALL emergency placements or until you can get to a store. If you are not given a gift card for an emergency placement, request one. If the social worker after placement says it's not an emergency placement, when originally that's what you were told, report it to their supervisor. Ask for the contact information for the Foster Parent Liaison contact at their office.   If they do not know, contact MSPCC (Mass Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children). Remember, I walked the walk and I know what it’s like to take in children and have nothing come with them.

Learning & Emotional Assessment Program (LEAP) The Learning and Emotional Assessment Program (LEAP) at Massachusetts General Hospital assesses students and children ages 2 to 22 who have developmental difficulties and consults with their parents, teachers and care providers.

Our clinical professionals have devoted their training, research and clinical practice to acquiring the specialized skills needed to assess children with learning disabilities, psychological and developmental disorders. Our team loves working with children and has a natural ability to put them at ease.

The Department of Psychiatry offers a depth and breadth of resources available at few other hospitals or psychiatric centers, meaning your child receives comprehensive, state-of-the-art care without leaving our campus. Services available at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children include:

Speech, voice and language therapy
Occupational therapy
Physical therapy
Pediatric neurology services
Psychological and psychiatric care within the Department of Child Psychiatry

MassGeneral Hospital for Children also includes several other locations in Greater Boston. For example, we collaborate with our colleagues at the hospital's Lurie Center for Autism to help children with autism and other developmental disorders.

Referral forms Clinician's Referral From (PDF)

Parent Referral Form (PDF)

HIPAA Authorization Form for release of information (PDF)

Learn more about:

Our Services
Our clinical assessments are designed to be a comfortable and often fascinating experience, and we find that many children enjoy the warm, one-on-one attention they receive. In addition, our professionals excel at discussing the benefits of assessments with even the most skeptical of adolescents. Our Staff
Our experienced professional staff includes Child psychologists, Licensed clinical psychologists, Neuropsychologists, Certified school psychologists, clinical psychology interns and postgraduate fellows.

Our Research
Research is an ongoing companion to treatment in the LEAP program, with clinical test data collected daily. This data is used to help participants in LEAP, as well as in other programs and departments. Conditions We Evaluate
LEAP treats a variety of conditions and disorders. With the trained resources of Mass General Hospital's Dept. of Psychiatry, we are able to evaluate and treat a variety of conditions and disorders.
Contact Us LEAP (Learning and Emotional Assessment Program)
151 Merrimac St., 5th Floor
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-643-6010

Boston Medical Center

Dr. Augustyn is the Director of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and is a Professor at Boston University School of Medicine. She went to medical school at Loyola Stritch School of Medicine, completed her pediatric residency at UCLA and her Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric Fellowship at Boston University-Boston City Hospital. Her clinical work at BMC primarily involves the evaluation of children with various developmental delays including autism,speech and language delays, global developmental delay, learning disabilities, ADHD to mention a few.

Her research work has varied across her career and includes work on the effects of both in utero cocaine exposure and violence on early childhood and parenting and recently she has been a leader in developing the Center for Family Navigation at BU, a national leader in promoting and developing the use of navigators to support families of children with developmental disabilities.

Dr. Augustyn is co-editor of The Zuckerman Parker Handbook of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics for Primary Care and the section co-editor for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics for the online journal UpToDate. She currently sits on the sub board of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the American Board of Pediatrics and is on the Board of Directors of the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. She is also on the American Academy of Pediatrics planning committee for Practical Pediatrics, their national CME Program.

Deborah Frank, MD

Dr. Frank is the Director of the Grow Clinic for Children and a board-certified Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at Boston Medical Center (BMC). She is also a Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Frank attended Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at Children's Hospital Seattle. After her residency, she went on to complete a fellowship in Child Development at Children's Hospital Boston. Dr. Frank specializes in issues of growth and nutrition and the impact of hunger on child development.

Dr. Frank has written numerous scientific articles and papers. Her work has focused on breastfeeding promotion, women and children affected by substance use, nutrition among homeless pregnant women and children, Failure to Thrive, food insecurity, and the “heat or eat” phenomenon, the dilemma that many low-income families face in the winter when they have to make the critical choice between heating their homes and feeding their children. She is especially proud of successfully mentoring many pre-professional and professional colleagues.

Cited as a respected authority in her fields, Dr. Frank has frequently given testimony to state and federal legislative committees on the growing problem of hunger and associated hardships in the United States and its effects on our youngest children. She has recently been nominated by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi to the newly established National Commission on Hunger. She is also an invited member of the Aspen’s Dialogue on Food Insecurity and Health Care Costs.

L. Kari Hironaka MD, MPH

Dr. Hironaka is a board-certified Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at Boston Medical Center. She completed her fellowship at Boston Medical Center. Dr. Hironaka specializes in health services research, health literacy and ADHD, as well as residency training.

John Maypole, MD

Dr. Maypole completed Pediatric Residency in 1999, and Pediatric Chief Residency in 2000 following his training at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Maypole has consistently included primary care, medical education, and in participating in and developing innovative clinical programs for complex children and their families. Dr. Maypole served as Associate Director of the Pediatric Integrative Medicine Education Project and performing Holistic Medicine consults and medical education at Children’s Hospital from 2003-2005. In 2005, Dr. Maypole became Director of the Department of Pediatrics at the South End Community Health Center while serving as an attending physician for the Comprehensive Care Program (CCP) in the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center. CCP is a multi-disciplinary team of providers who provide enhanced and coordinated primary care to the most medically complex patients and higher risk families in the Pediatric Department, including ex-premature infants, children with special health needs and neurodevelopmental disabilities. In February of 2013, Dr. Maypole came to Boston University/Boston Medical Center to work full time to develop approaches and programs to address this fast-growing segment of the pediatric population. In September of 2014, Dr. Maypole received an award from the Center for Medicare Medicaid Innovation, supporting a 3 year effort for the Massachusetts Alliance for Complex Care/4C program--a consultative, multidisciplinary care support model of care for PCPs and families of medically complex children, of which he is co-principal investigator. He is an associate professor of Pediatrics at BUSM. Dr. Maypole writes child health-related articles for a lay audience, for mainstream media and online publications.

Jenny Radesky, MD

Dr. Radesky is a board-eligible Developmental Behavioral Pediatrician and a board-certified general pediatrician who recently joined the faculty at Boston Medical Center after completing her fellowship training here. She attended Harvard Medical School and completed her pediatrics training at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Radesky is a clinician-investigator whose clinical interests include early childhood adversity, attachment relationships, and child self-regulation, as well as teaching trainees methods of observing parent-child interaction. Her research examines mobile/interactive media use by parents and young children and how this effects parent-child interaction and child social-emotional development. She is an active member of the AAP Council on Communications and Media.

Arathi Reddy, DO

Dr. Reddy is a board-certified Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at Boston Medical Center. She attended medical school at Western University of Allied Health Sciences in Pomona, CA and completed her residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital/ University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Morristown, NJ. She completed her fellowship at Einstein Montefiore and worked in NYC prior to joining the faculty in March 2011.

Jodi Santosuosso, NP, MSN

Jodi is a certified nurse practitioner in the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Division at Boston Medical Center. She attended University of Massachusetts College of Nursing and Health Sciences and completed her residency at University of Massachusetts, Boston. She joined the Boston Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine faculty in April 2007. Jodi has had extensive training in developmental and behavioral pediatrics, gastrointestinal (GI) diseases and ear, nose and throat (ENT) disorders.

Laura Sices, MD, MSDr. Sices is a board-certified Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician at Boston Medical Center (BMC). She attended medical school at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, completed her residency at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and completed her fellowship at University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Dr. Sices was on the faculty at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, OH before joining BMC in 2007. Dr. Sices’ clinical work focuses on assessment and management of children with a variety of different concerns, including developmental delays, speech and language delays and conditions, ADHD, learning disabilities and differences, and autism spectrum conditions. Her academic focus is on developmental screening and the early identification of developmental delays.

Naomi Steiner, MD

Dr. Steiner is the Director of Training at the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Steiner studies how computers train the brain, which is an area of great interest in overlapping fields of ADHD, psychology, neuroscience and education, and closely followed by many as a complimentary or alternative approach to the traditional psychopharmacological treatment of ADHD. She is specifically interested in implementing neurofeedback attention training in schools. She is also interested in teaching self-regulation skills and relaxation breathing in schools. Dr. Steiner is multicultural and multilingual. In 2030 more than 50% of children will be raised bilingual in the United States! Dr. Steiner has written a book on how to successfully raise children bilingual (7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child), and instructs medical professional, teachers and parents on how children learn two languages, and how English Language Learners can be successful at school.

Mary Ellen Stolecki, NP, MSN

Mary Ellen is a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner in the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Division at Boston Medical Center and an Instructor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine.

She specializes in primary care of the Child with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) in the Comprehensive Care Program. She also practices in the Pediatric Gastroenterology Division providing specialty care for gastrointestinal (GI) conditions.

Her clinical interests are primary care for medically complex children (as well as GI issues) of CSHCN including: care of the premature infant, autism, cerebral palsy, seizures, Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, Turner syndrome,achrondroplasia,and multiple congenital anomalies.

Jodi Wenger, MD

Jodi Wenger, MD is a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School who completed her pediatric residency at Boston Medical Center. She spent several years on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona before transitioning back to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH. She served as a pediatric hospitalist, outpatient provider and educator at Dartmouth Medical School.

She has always had an interest in children with special health care needs. She worked in the Comprehensive Care Program at BMC as a resident and is thrilled to return. She was the general pediatrician at the multidisciplinary spina bifida clinic at Dartmouth Hitchcock and cared for children with neurologic challenges while on the Navajo Reservation.

Dr. Wenger has also had an interest in resident work hour reform and continues to support the software she and her husband created during her chief resident year. Amion, continues to allow one to make fair physician call schedules that can be easily accessed online.

Barry Zuckerman, MD

Dr. Zuckerman is Professor and Chair Emeritus of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center. He is a national and international leader in child health and development. His research focuses on the interplay among biological, social and psychological factors as they contribute to children's health and development. Dr. Zuckerman and colleagues have developed four programs that transformed health care to better meet the needs of low income and minority children. The success of these efforts is that they are now all national programs; Reach Out and Read, Medical-Legal Partnership, Health Leads and Healthy Steps. In addition to more than 250 scientific publications, he has edited nine books, including three editions of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics: Handbook for Primary Care. He has served on prestigious national committees; National Commission on Children, Carnegie Commission on Young Children, Bright Futures, and has received numerous national and international awards including the C. Anderson Aldrich for Child Development and the Joseph St Geme Award for Leadership from AAP, and the Policy and Advocacy award and Health Care Delivery Award from the APA. He has consulted in Turkey, Bangladesh, and Thailand regarding child development.

- See more at: http://www.bmc.org/pediatrics-developmentalbehavioral/team.htm#sthash.UrLgPWRv.dpuf