medical card
Thomas H. Pinkstaff Medical Home Clinic A medical home is a place where the staff knows your needs, your history and how to help you stay healthy. For children in foster care, this medical home is hard to find. The Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs, in collaboration with the University of Kentucky, has created a clinic to provide a medical home to children in foster care in central Kentucky. The Thomas H. Pinkstaff Medical Home Clinic in Lexington provides comprehensive primary care including: Well-child checks, immunizations, developmental assessments, intake physicals for children new to out-ofhome care, referral and coordination of specialty care as needed, and care for common childhood illnesses. Clinic staff coordinates with providers to limit the number of separate appointments, consolidate doctor visits and studies difficult. Fortunately, our social worker connected us to The Commission for Children with Special Health Care Needs and Children in Foster Care, and its Primary Care Clinic called the Thomas H. Pinkstaff Medical Home Clinic. his place has been a lifesaver. I truly believe that the women who work there have helped Chris and I continue in our foster care life. Everyone who works there goes out of their way to help us. It is such an inviting place to bring kids. Often, our biological kids are tagging along. The Primary Care Clinic has helped us with everything from well child check-ups to flu to Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. With the special health-care needs of our foster children, the Primary Care Clinic has always been
whenever possible. For families working with a DCBS caseworker, the clinic assists the case worker and family by avoiding fragmentation of medical records and ensuring that the child’s medical passport is kept current. The Medical Home Clinic serves foster children in Anderson, Bourbon, Boyle, Clark, Estill, Fayette, Franklin, Garrard, Harrison, Jessamine, Lincoln, Madison, Mercer, Nicholas, Powell, Scott and Woodford counties. This clinic currently serves approximately 250 of Kentucky’s special needs population and out-of-home care children. Info: Thomas H. Pinkstaff Medical Home Clinic Primary Care for Children with Special Health Care Needs / 333 Waller Ave., Suite 300, Lexington • (859) 252-3270.
helpful in getting us pointed in the right direction. The Clinic staff has helped us set up appointments with Early Start with Fayette County public schools and First Steps. First Steps is Kentucky’s early intervention system for children from birth to age 3 who have developmental delays. The majority of our children have benefited greatly from First Steps, which provides services to meet age-appropriate goals with regard to physical, cognitive, language development and social/ emotional development. Our foster children have received help with such issues as delayed speech/language problems, late walking, failure to thrive, learning to dress and feed oneself, social skills, playing with toys and so on. Without First Steps and The Primary Care Clinic, we would have been lost.
f anyone out there is considering adoption or becoming a foster parent, I would encourage you to get a support system in place and then, take the plunge! When Chris and I told our families about our plans to become foster parents, some were less than thrilled. At the time, our children were 3 and 7. They worried that Emma, our 7-year-old, would not do well emotionally. After all, she was still having a hard time accepting her brother Ben three years later! I am proud to say that Emma and Ben, now 6 and 10, are very well-adjusted kids. I feel like they have gained incredible perspective on the world around them, showing them there is more to life than having the latest video game or toy. I believe they truly appreciate both the material things and the people they have in their lives. t 2011 Exceptional Family KY
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