2 minute read
How to become a foster parent to children with medical needs.
Family Matters
Foster Care for Children with Medical Needs
One family shares their story and OhioGuidestone offers tips on how to foster a medically fragile child.
Michelle and Bryan McManus have been caring for children with medical needs for more than six years. “Over the past six years, we have cared for 13 foster children,” Michelle McManus says. “Along the way, our two biological children have learned to love children who don’t look like them — babies who rely on medical devices to eat and equipment to help them stand. They have woken up to new breakfast guests and immediately welcomed them by sharing their toys, their parents and their rooms with these new siblings. Their eyes have been opened to the huge need outside their comfortable, suburban home.”
Children who are medically fragile have likely experienced high levels of trauma and have medical needs that require a patient, well-trained caregiver. Medical needs include possible complications from premature birth; the need for oxygen, feeding tubes or tracheotomies; chronic childhood illnesses; or children who may be non-ambulatory. If you want to foster a medically fragile child, please know you do not have to have a medical background, just a willingness to learn. Each family goes through 36 hours of preservice training, two more hours with an agency nurse, then a home study. A flexible schedule is a must, as these children have many doctors appointments and therapies to keep them healthy. To be licensed and successful, all foster parents must be financially stable, 21 years of age or older, pass a criminal background or abuse/neglect check, and be wellsupported by family and friends. “Now, as I sit in the emergency room for the second time in five days with a baby I can’t call my own, I am reminded why I became a foster parent,” Michelle McManus says. “My phone rings. It’s the placement coordinator. I learned about a 5-yearold boy, in the same hospital, who needs a safe place to call home. It breaks my heart to say no. I became a medically fragile foster parent to stand in the gap for children just like him, but I also know my limits. The days are long, the sleep is scarce, the advocating is fierce, but the need is great. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything.” For more than 157 years, OhioGuidestone has been helping children and families on the pathway to growth, achievement and lifelong success. OhioGuidestone’s Medically fragile foster parenting: if not you, then who? Take a courageous step, become a foster parent today. Call 216-402-0381 or submit an inquiry at ohioguidestone.org.
We need people just like you to care for teenagers, sibling groups and children with medical needs.
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