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How to Increase Family Centered Care in Your Practice

The Goal: Family-Professional Partnerships

• The medical home physician is known to the child or youth and family.
• Mutual responsibility and trust exists between the patient and family and the medical home physician.
• The family is recognized as the principal caregiver and center of strength and support for child.
• Clear, unbiased, and complete information and options are shared on an ongoing basis with the family.
• Families and youth are supported to play a central role in care coordination.
• Families, youth, and physicians share responsibility in decision making.
• The family is recognized as the expert in their child’s care, and youth are recognized as the experts in their own care.¹
  

The Goal: Family Input on Practice Policies and Procedures

• The medical home assesses CSHCN and the needs of their families in accordance with its mission.
• The medical home solicits feedback from families that can influence office policies (e.g. the way things are done).
• The medical home has a parent/practice “advisory group.”
• The medical home establishes enhanced communication methods or systematic inquiry of family concerns/priorities.
• A written mission statement is publicly displayed and reflects the practice’s commitment to quality care for CSHCN and their families. ²

Examples from the © Center for Medical Home Improvement's Medical Home Toolkit: ²
A parent advisory group is organized and meets regularly with the practice.
This provides an ongoing opportunity for dialogue with parents about how
health care is delivered, how it can be improved, and how to establish better
communication with parents on an ongoing basis.

The practice reviews and changes their policies in a manner that allows family input to affect how things are done; examples of potential changes might
include the hours of operation, staff roles, or the practice’s phone system.

The practice creates or revises its mission statement to reflect their family centered values for children with special needs and for all children

A letter or brochure is created for families explaining the practice philosophy and best methods to access providers

Family/community focus groups or forums are offered; families are invited to
participate and comment on what works well at the practice and what could be
improved

Guides to Increase Family Partnership and Involvement
A Guide for Parent and Practice "Partners" Working to Build Medical Homes for CSHCN: A resource for practice and parent partners to help them learn how to engage families as partners with their practice improvement. Developed by the Center for Medical Home Improvement. Guide

Making it Work: When Families That Represent A Service Population Become Employees. A manual for recruiting, hiring and retaining family representatives.From the Consortium for the Employment of Parent Representative. Manual

Taking a Closer Look: A Guide to Online Resources on Family Involvement
The Harvard Family Research Project has compiled and categorized a large body of information on family involvement to make it easier to access and use. This resource guide contains web links to research, information, programs, and tools from over 100 national organizations. It provides information about parenting practices to support children's learning and development, home-school relationships, parent leadership development, and collective engagement for school improvement and reform.
To access this resource, go to: www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/resources/guide/guide.html

Title V Toolbox for Family Participation!
To encourage the active participation of families within Title V programs, Family Voices has collected materials developed by states that support family involvement in MCH (Maternal and Child Health) and CSHCN (Children with Special Health Care Needs) programs to be shared on this web site. By building upon existing materials and models, families and states can strengthen family involvement in their own programs.

Examples of what is available in the toolbox: Materials created by states to develop family advisory committees or councils including descriptions, guidelines, by-laws, and information forms Information on contracts or examples of contract language that states use to encourage family participation; Examples of materials to help family members understand the Block Grant process; Resources to educate families about Title V.
www.familyvoices.org/toolbox/

1. The Medical Home. Pediatrics. 2002; 110: 184-186.
2. The Medical Home Tool Kit. © Center for Medical Home Improvement 2001.

Last Updated August 15, 2006