Foster Care Support

The FCSC provides primary care medical services using a patient-centered medical home model established by the American Academy of Pediatrics. A patient-centered medical home is a place where your child’s medical treatment is coordinated through his/her primary care doctor. As a patient-centered medical home, we work on both the medical and non-medical needs of your child and family. We provide medical care for your child when and where they need it in a manner that you can understand. We follow and take care of your child, healthy and sick, from birth through high school.

Our Services

Medically Complex Clinic for Children in Foster Care

Did you know that at least fifty percent of children entering foster care have one or more chronic health conditions and ten percent have multiple, complex care needs? In 2009, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and the South Carolina Department of Social Services (DSS) collaborated to form the Foster Care Support Clinic (FCSC). This year, the FCSC is excited to announce a new service we are providing to better serve our medically complex children in foster care. Once a month, we have a special multi-disciplinary clinic that includes a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Pediatrician, Physical Therapist, Dietician, and Nurse Coordinator. In this clinic, medically complex children in foster care will receive excellent coordinated care, education, and medical treatments. Many families with medically complex kids express frustration with multiple appointments, lack of understanding equipment needs, and lack of education on their child’s diagnosis. We understand all these frustrations and strive to “Change What’s Possible” for these families. We welcome everyone involved in the child’s care to the appointments- including home health RN’s, PT/OT/ST, DSS workers, therapeutic agency workers, foster parents, or other case coordinators. If you would enroll your foster child in our clinic, please call Tara Peevy, RN at 843-876-7023 to review eligibility. Fax: 843-876-1935.

Mental Health Services

Our FCSC therapist is available to provide trauma-focused and supportive counseling to children and families deemed appropriate by FCSC medical providers and staff. Our therapist has received specialized training in trauma-focused therapy. Services include:

• Comprehensive mental health evaluation
• Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) and/or other evidence-based therapies
• Coordination with PCP, schools, DSS, and other involved agencies/professionals
• Therapeutic groups for patients and foster families
• Consultation/referral services

Human Services Coordinator

The human services coordinator will serve as your initial contact with the FCSC. Services include managing referrals, scheduling patients, and coordinating necessary services.

Nurse Coordinators

After your child becomes a patient in the clinic, we will:

• Provide ongoing case management and assessment of social service needs
• Serve as a liaison with community agencies, e.g., DSS, DDSN, CRS, DNLCC, DCC, Therapeutic foster care, etc.
• Attend coordination meetings, e.g., Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and Foster Care Review Board (FCRB) meetings, as needed
• Attend school meetings, as needed

More Care Team Members

Mary E. Abel, M.D.

Mollie Dadin, LISW-CP

Tracy W. Halasz, MSN, APRN, CPNP, PMHS

Marissa Kemp, NP

Andrea Jones, LPN, Human Service Coordinator

Tara Peevy, RN, BSN

Elizabeth Wallis, M.D. 

FCSC Resources for Parents, Teachers & Other Professionals

For Parents & Professionals

Vanderbilt Assessment Scales

• Initial for Parent
• Initial for Teacher
• Follow-up for Parent
• Follow-up for Teacher
  

Ages & Stages Questionnaires

• 9-month Questionnaire
• 18-month Questionnaire
• 24-month Questionnaire

Screening for Child Anxiety-Related Disorders

• Child Version
• Parent Version
• PHQ-9 Questionnaire

The Foster Care Support Clinic Bill of Rights

• To be called by their name and to be treated with respect and dignity.
• To receive safe and appropriate care in a timely manner in a secure and nurturing environment.
• To clinic personnel who will listen.
• To know the names of the doctors, nurses and other helpers who take care of them.
• To make choices whenever possible as long as they do not interfere with their care.
• To cry, make noise or object to anything that makes them uncomfortable.
• To be told what’s happening to them, why it is necessary, and to have all their questions answered in words they understand.
• To have someone who speaks the same language.
• To have doctors, nurses and other helpers who are sensitive to their culture.

The FCSC Family Support Principles

• Staff will collaborate and problem solve with families in a manner which is based on mutual trust, respect, dignity and equality.
• Staff is sensitive, knowledgeable, and responsive to family, cultural, ethnic and socio-economic diversity.
• Family choice and decision making occur at all levels of participation in the program, based on desires, priorities and preferences.
• Information necessary for families to make informed choices is shared in a sensitive, complete and unbiased manner.
• Staff provides supports, resources and services to families in a flexible, responsive and individualized manner.
• Staff assists families in identifying their own strengths, assets and interests as the primary way of empowering families and enhancing family functioning.
• Families are resources to their own members, to other families, to programs and to communities.