Neurodevelopment Foster Care Clinic

Children are getting support to reach developmental milestones.

 

Foster children with neurodevelopmental needs are getting referred to supportive services through a coordinated and multidisciplinary system called the Neurodevelopmental Foster Care Clinic, which is an innovative, coordinated approach to address the neurodevelopmental needs of very vulnerable children age 0-5 in the foster care system.

 

The Neurodevelopmental Foster Care Clinic (NDFCC) is a collaboration between Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Developmental-Behavioral Program, Santa Cruz County Children’s Behavioral Health, Santa Cruz County Family and Children’s Services, and First 5 Santa Cruz County, and is located at Stanford Children’s Health specialty services clinic in Capitola. The NDFCC takes a holistic approach to evaluate infants and children in the foster care system from 4 months to age 5, in a wide range of developmental and behavioral domains.

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Using an interdisciplinary approach, the NDFCC integrates health information and trauma history with developmental assessment, evaluation of social skills, and consideration of environmental conditions. They assess children for delayed language, thinking, and social or motor skills, as well as children who have challenges with sleep, eating, behavior, discipline, or temperament. Their interdisciplinary team focuses on early intervention to address the needs of young children who have recently entered foster care, and to provide comprehensive services to these foster children, their families, and foster families.