Skip to main content
Home
Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress
  • Home
  • Trauma-informed pediatric care

    What is Pediatric Medical Traumatic Stress?

    • The basics
    • Prevalence & course
    • Traumatic stress symptoms
    • Risk factors
    • Understanding the family's experience
    • Key research findings

    How to Provide Trauma-Informed Care

    • The basics
    • D-E-F framework
    • Levels of risk and trauma-informed care
    • Timeline for trauma-informed care
    • Referral to mental health care
    • Addressing health disparities
    • Developmental considerations
    • Cultural considerations

    Self Care & Secondary Trauma

    • The basics
    • Self care tips
    • Organizational support
  • Find information for..
    • The healthcare team
    • Physicians-PAs-NPs
    • Nurses
    • Pre-hospital providers
    • Medical interpreters
    • Mental health professionals
    • Child welfare professionals
    • Child Life Professionals
  • Professional Education
    • Take a Free Online Course
    • Other education resources
  • Find Tools and Resources

    Patient Education

    Patient Education

    • For parents & caregivers
    • For children & teens

    Screening & Assessment

    Screening & Assessment

    • The basics
    • Find screening & assessment tools
    • Screening after pediatric injury
    • Psychosocial Assessment Tool (PAT)
    • Acute Stress Checklist (ASC-Kids)
    • Family Illness Beliefs Inventory (FIBI)

    Intervention

    Intervention

    • The basics
    • Surviving Cancer Competently (SCCIP)
    • Cellie Coping Kit

    Trauma-Informed Care

    Trauma-Informed Care

    • The basics
    • TIC Provider Survey
    • Observation Checklist - Pediatric Resuscitation

    COVID-19

    COVID-19

    • COVID-19
    • Resources for healthcare staff
    • COVID-19 Exposure and Family Impact Scales (CEFIS)
    • Helping my child cope

    Resources

    Resources

    • More resources
  • For Patients and Families
    • Coping with injury or illness
    • Sleep
    • Pain
    • Behavior
    • Worries & fears
    • Quiet or withdrawn
    • School
    • Siblings
    • Parents
    • Need more help?
    • Family voices
Health Care Transition to Adulthood for Child Welfare Involved Youth

Child welfare professionals are used to thinking about transition to adulthood for the children they serve. Health care needs should be high on the list of transition issues, especially when a child has a chronic health condition.

For youth with special health care needs who are in foster care or other placements, health care transition preparation and planning is critically important yet frequently over looked. According to the Juvenile Law Center:

The transition to adulthood is challenging for youth, even in the best of circumstances. Youth with disabilities in the child welfare system face many additional barriers to a successful transition. These young adults are leaving a system that provided for all their needs, including a place to live, health care, education, and connections with family. To plan for care in the adult world, not only must these youth navigate complex adult systems that operate with rules very different from child-serving systems, but often they must do so alone, without the guiding hand of a parent. They are entering an adult world where the rules for access to benefits and services are quite different: health care coverage is much more limited, most services are not entitlements, and many services have long waiting lists.

 

To successfully transition from the child welfare system, young adults with disabilities and special health care needs—and the professionals and advocates working with them—must begin planning early and need to know what benefits and services are available in the adult system and how to access them. Good planning and knowledge of the law, services, and supports that individuals with disabilities need as they make the transition to adulthood from the child welfare system can improve outcomes tremendously for these emerging adults.

The Juvenile Law Center has developed an excellent transition planning toolkit for youth with disabilities involved with the child welfare system and child welfare professionals. It includes a guide for professionals, a parallel guide for youth, and a useful, easy-to-use tool to facilitate the process.

  • Transition Planning for Youth with Disabilities in the Child Welfare System to Adulthood: A Guide for Professionals
  • Planning for Youth with Disabilities in the Child Welfare System to Adulthood: A Guide for Youth
  • Planning Tool and Protocol for Transition Planning for Youth with Disabilities from the Child Welfare System to Adulthood

Health care transition preparation ideally should start when the child first receives a diagnosis of a chronic condition. Transition preparation involves helping the child or youth develop skills to be their own health advocate. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia website has helpful resources for children and youth and for their parents/caregivers.

Primary care practices that are aligned with the Medical Home model utilize tools to monitor transition readiness and support transition preparation and planning. Visit the national Health Care Transition Center and their Six Core Elements of Health Care Transition , a set of tools to help pediatric practices build their capacity in transition preparation and planning. This site is helpful for child welfare professionals, too.

Quick links
  • About Us
  • Ethics & Compliance
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
Quick Contact
  • cpts@chop.edu
  • 3401 Civic Center Blvd.
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Subscribe to Health Care Toolbox

CHOP Nemours Logo NCTSN Logo Award 2012

© 2021 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. All Rights Reserved.