SFY 21 Medically Complex Training

The Medically Complex Training Program provides initial and ongoing training as well as support to families providing care to children with complex medical needs throughout Kentucky. Foster parents working with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Department for Community Based Services (DCBS) and private child placing (PCP) agencies, along with DCBS and PCP staff attend Medically Complex training. There are four (4) web-based trainings that serve as prerequisites to the initial medically complex classroom training, Join Hands Together. These include Medically Complex Orientation (2.25 hours), DCBS Standards of Practice for Medically Complex Homes (1 hour), Growth and Development (1 hour) and Nutrition (1 hour). These are required for all families before they attend the one-day classroom training component of Join Hands Together. They are to be completed one week prior to attending the scheduled one-day classroom training that provides the remaining 6.75 hours of training credit needed to become a Medically Complex Foster Home. Certification in infant, child and adult CPR and first aid is still required, along with regional approval, before a foster parent is deemed a Medically Complex Foster Parent. During FY 2021, up to 15 JHT classroom trainings will be delivered to DCBS and PCP foster parents and staff. There are 36 available slots for each training. At the direction of DCBS, those slots are distributed as follows: 12 for PCP foster parents, 12 for DCBS foster parents, 5 for PCP workers, and 7 for DCBS and/or PCP foster parents who have an exception. During FY 2021, the Medically Complex Training Program will continue to work in conjunction with the DCBS Training Branch and DCBS Division of Protection and Permanency to implement ongoing medically complex training events designed to meet the diverse training needs of the state’s medically complex foster parents. Various training topics related to the care of children designated as Medically Complex will be available for participants to choose from to meet training requirements at two conference-style events offered annually. All medically complex foster parents will be encouraged to attend these statewide training events. Make-up training will be made available utilizing web-based trainings that have been approved for use as ongoing Medically Complex training credit. Make-up training is reserved for those medically complex foster parents who are unable to attend an annual event during their renewal period and who also have a child designated as medically complex placed in their care. Goal: The goal of the Medically Complex Training Program is to provide training and support to foster homes in Kentucky caring for children in out-of-home care with complex medical needs. Objective 1: Develop curricula and deliver training that provides accurate and current information to Medically Complex Foster Parents The program coordinator works closely with the DCBS Training Branch and Division of Protection and Permanency’s Medical Support Section, as well as other partners, to identify subjects that need curriculum development and/or training delivery. The need for curriculum development or training topics is further identified by surveying current medically complex foster parents. All training material is researched and checked for accuracy and/or presented by experts in their respective fields. This includes consultation with the Medical Support Section and partners in the medical community.