Fostering Health

Designed for use by pediatric health care professionals, child welfare professionals, and all others working to improve outcomes for children and adolescents in foster care, this updated and expanded edition of Fostering Health serves as a comprehensive guide to health care for this population.

Many children in foster care have complex physical, mental health, developmental, and psychosocial problems rooted in childhood adversity and trauma. Fostering Health helps pediatric health care clinicians and other professionals understand the needs of these children and how to navigate the systems impacting their health. With contributions from leading experts in the field, topics included are health care practice, culture of child welfare, adolescents and specific populations, system and practice challenges and solutions, and policy and advocacy.

In keeping with the latest science, this edition of Fostering Health incorporates the principles of trauma-informed relational health care into all aspects of caring for children involved with child welfare. Each chapter includes an equity lens, as well as review by people with lived experience in the foster care system--an important new addition to this long-standing, authoritative guide.

The AAP Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of children and youth in foster care, kinship care, and those who have been adopted.​

Camille Broussard, MD, MPH, FAAP is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is a public health-trained and board-certified pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and addiction medicine specialist and practices pediatric primary care at Annapolis Pediatrics in Maryland. She is committed to improving the health and well-being of vulnerable youth by promoting health equity and eradicating health disparities. She is also committed to preparing the next generation of physicians to provide care that is both trauma- and structurally-responsive. Dr. Broussard serves in several leadership roles including as an Executive Committee member for the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care (COFCAKC), chair for the COFCAKC Subcommittee on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and a member of the National Center for Relational Health and Trauma-informed Care Expert Leadership Team.

Kristine Fortin, MD, MPH completed her residency in pediatrics at Sainte-Justine Hospital affiliated with the Université de Montréal, a fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics at Hasbro Children's Hospital, and a Master of Public Health at Brown University. Dr. Fortin is currently an attending physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. She serves as the medical director of CHOP's Fostering Health Program. Dr. Fortin served on the executive committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Foster Care Adoption and Kinship care from 2019-2025.

Mary V. Greiner, MD, MS is a child abuse pediatrician and the Medical Director of the Comprehensive Health Evaluations for Cincinnati's Kids (CHECK) Foster Care Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. She is a professor with tenure in the University of Cincinnati Department of Pediatrics. Since founding the CHECK Center in 2012, Dr. Greiner has focused on working across systems to develop a healthcare model for comprehensive, multidisciplinary care for children with child welfare involvement from birth through young adulthood. Her research explores health risks and evaluates innovative solutions to improve outcomes for these youth. Dr. Greiner also serves as Chair of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Foster Care, Adoption, and Kinship Care.

Moira Szilagyi, MD, PhD, FAAP is a past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), primary care pediatrician, Professor of Pediatrics, Division Chief of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, and Interim Division Chief of General Pediatrics at UCLA where she is also the Peter Shapiro Term Chair for Enhancing Children's Developmental and Behavioral Health in Pediatrics. Dr. Szilagyi was Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester from 1990 to 2014 and Medical Director of Starlight Pediatrics, an integrated-care medical home for children in foster/kinship care. Her broad experience includes primary care for vulnerable populations, suburban private practice, education of trainees, leadership of several multi-system collaborative partnerships to improve care for vulnerable children, research on evidence-based screening and the integration of mental health into primary care, and a long history of advocacy at the federal, state and local levels. Dr. Szilagyi has held numerous AAP leadership positions, chairing the AAP NY-District II Task Force on Foster Care and the national Council on Foster Care, Adoption and Kinship Care. She is Co-Medical Director of the AAP National Center for Relational Health and Trauma-Informed Care, senior editor of Fostering Health (the manual for providers and systems), and has authored several AAP policy statements and clinical and technical reports on child welfare-involved children. She is Principal Investigator of an AAP case-based online educational program to help pediatricians integrate trauma-informed care into practice. Dr. Szilagyi sees patients in L.A. County's foster care system.