A Place to Call Home provides all necessary training to become a licensed Pro- fessional Family Foster Home to provide care for medically fragile foster children placed by the Arizona Department of Economic Security’s Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF). On-going support and supervision is provided by A Place To Call Home. A Place To Call Home also provides the specialized and individualized training that is necessary to build the skill level of professional foster parents for the special care needs of medically fragile foster children. A licensed foster home for ACYF Professional Medically Fragile Foster Care may provide care for up to two children. Foster care for children placed by ACYF can be temporary or long term, as the case plan for many children in foster care is typically return to home or adoption. A Place To Call Home places great emphasis and takes diligent time in matching foster children to their foster family. In an effort to contribute to a successful family dynamic, a child (ages 0 to 18) profile is constructed to identify the child best suited for your family as well as the best family suited for the child. The child profile information is collected from the foster family, incorporating the special needs of a foster child, the family’s medical skill level and the family’s care interests.

The ACYF Professional Medically Fragile Foster Care program is for children in foster care, ages 0 to 18 years of age, with a majority of children placed ranging in age from 0 to 5 years. The ACYF Professional Medically Fragile Program serves medically fragile infants and children that have significant medical, physical or developmental impairment, such as substance exposure, genetic defects, chromosomal disorders, failure to thrive, feeding issues and respiratory com- plications due to premature birth. The severity of such medically fragile conditions demand total care and around the clock monitoring. Medically fragile foster children are commonly placed immediately after discharge from the hospital or medical care facility. Foster parents are required to have medical knowledge, education and experience in physically defective conditions, medical disorders, substance exposure, enhanced well baby monitoring and medical supervision skills. A Place To Call Home staffs two Registered Nurses, who are on consistently on call to assist and provide resource to foster families pertaining to medical care needs, assessments and services for the medically fragile foster child.

The ACYF Professional Medically Fragile Foster Care program is unique to the Tucson area, differing for the ACYF Regular Medically Fragile programs by being the only program that provides care and support services to the most severe and medically compromised foster children. The ACYF Regular Medically Fragile programs at alternate foster care providers serves children with lower grade and shorter term medical care needs. A Place To Call Home’s ACYF Professional Medically Fragile Foster Care program is for total care medically fragile children that are new to the foster care system, need emergency placement, need of a different foster care placement, are being placed for long term foster care, or are being moved for foster-adoptive placement. A child is placed in foster care when the child has been removed from the legal custody of their parents or guardians by the State of Arizona’s Child Protective Services (CPS) or voluntarily placed in foster care by their birth parents or legal guardian. Whether a child’s foster care needs are short term or long term, children may become eligible for adoption if the parental rights of the birth parents are severed. Children in foster care require very special care and extraordinary commitment from their foster parents. Children in foster care for medically fragile care needs have commonly have suffered neglect, abandonment and other forms of abuse because of their difficult and consuming medical care needs. It is essential that these children are placed in a safe home with a loving and committed foster family who can provide for their special needs.