The FAR pathway may be a great alternative for some medical neglect cases. Children with multiple medical problems can present a challenge to any parent. These children often require many medical appointments, multiple therapies such as physical, speech, and occupational therapy, medical equipment monitoring, special diets, and multiple medications. When the families of chronically ill children have limited resources, the challenges the children present can be overwhelming.FAR may be able to help prevent out of home placement for some medically fragile children by providing their caregiver with additional resources and support.
Depending on the situation, the FAR pathway can help the family reduce the risks that brought them to the attention of the department by connecting them with community resources such as:
- Transportation
- A doctor who takes medical coupons
- Expansion of the circle of caregivers to help with the child's medical care
- Volunteers - someone to help organize the medical care and or appointments, help the family understanding the medical plan
- Visiting nurse
Some of the issues that might be present in medical neglect cases for which the FAR pathway might be helpful include:
- The family lacks resources to care for their children with acute or chronic illness. For some parents, taking time off from work to care for their sick children can be a financial hardship.
- Lack of access to care (e.g. transportation issues or appointments requiring long distance travel).
- Parent's lack of awareness, knowledge or skills in identifying signs or symptoms that indicate their children could be seriously ill.
- Parental delays that limit their capacity to respond to the child's health care needs.
Cases that involve parents who make clear choices that put their children's safety in immediate danger will be assigned to the traditional CPS Investigative Pathway.