Every Youth Deserves a Medical Home
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Do you have a Medical Home?
A medical home is a way you, your family and all your doctors work together to find a plan for you to reach your life goals/dreams and stay healthy in the process. It is also a way of putting all the people who can help you under one roof. Children/Youth and their families who have a medical home receive the care that they need from a pediatrician or physician (health care professional) whom they trust.

Transitions/changes are a part of life, it begins when you are born and continues through your life. A transition goal is to increase your functioning throughout life by providing you with the best health care services to help you gain independence. A medical home can help you throughout life’s transition process. You, your family and health care professionals work together in a medical home to identify and make contact with all the medical and non-medical services needed to make your daily life easier for you and your family.

How do you know if you have a medical home?
There are seven parts that go into making a medical home. Each of these seven parts helps you get the care you need to stay healthy. The questions below can help you better understand how a medical home can help you and your family find who, what, where and how you can get what you need to reach your dreams. You can use these questions to ask your provider about ways to improve services for you and your family. This is your opportunity to take charge of your life and make a plan to help you reach your dreams. You deserve a medical home!

Does your provider:
Accept your health insurance?
Let you know how you can get a hold of someone in the office at any time, day or night?
Have exam tables low enough for you to get on? Door openings wide enough for you to get in the room (i.e. wheelchair access)?
Help you find other resources/people who can provide care in your community (i.e. home health services)?
Access to Care

Does your provider:
Ask you how you are feeling? Ask you if you know why you are seeing them today before asking your parents?
Talk about your health with just you and recognize you as an expert in your own care? Ask you if you would like your parents to wait outside?
Ask you, who you consider your family and involve them in your care plan?
Sit down with you and your family to come up with a care plan for you? Ask you who is around to help you with homework, bathing, eating and getting around?
Youth/Family-Centered Care

Does your provider:
Talk with the hospital physician if you are admitted to the hospital?
Help you get ready for changes in school (graduation and college, being a part of your IEP)?
Help you get ready for changes in your health (talk to you about how your body is changing)?
Ask when you think you should or would like to start seeing an adult provider?
Speak to you about different people, places or things to help you and your family meet your goals and plan for your future?
Continuous Care

Does your provider:
Tell you how to get a hold of them when/if the office is closed (Office staff are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year)?
Know you and your family (asks questions about other things other than your health and your condition)?
Help you find information or people who can help you apply for insurance and public resources (i.e. Medicaid)?
Let you know how important it is to come see them on a regular basis to help prevent other conditions (such as: pressure sores, seizures)?
Comprehensive Care

Does your provider:
Help you find out where you can get needed services (Transportation, Personal Aide, SSI)?
Talk about your health and needs to you and your (school, therapists, specialty doctors) or anyone else who works with you to come up with your care plan?
Help you with scheduling appointments, finding you a specialist to help with your other health needs?
Help you learn how to keep a notebook of all doctor visits, medicines and important phone numbers so you learn more about your disability?
Help you find out where, who or how to call someone for a new wheelchair, walker or crutches to help you get around easier?
Coordinated Care

Does your provider:
Speak to you in a way you understand?
Sit down at an appointment and asks what you do for fun, how school/work is going, and what your plans are for next year?
Help you feel comfortable enough so you can talk to them about such things as relationships, sex, drugs, and birth control?
Compassionate Care

Does your provider:
Ask about you and your family beliefs, cultural background, rituals, and customs when discussing your plan for the future?
Ask if you understand your care plan and the medical information included in your care and makes sure you have interpreters or a translator if needed?
Culturally-Effective Care

The American Academy of Pediatrics believes that all youth should have a medical home where care is accessible, youth/family-centered, continuous, comprehensive, coordinated, compassionate and culturally-effective.