In order for children with special health care needs to be adequately cared for, a variety of integrated, coordinated services are needed to support the children and their families. To facilitate optimal coordination of care for these children, it is imperative that the professionals who serve them engage in a partnership of care with parents or other family members. To that end, the Division of Children's Special Health Care Services (DCSHCS), Michigan Department of Public Health has carried out a variety of efforts to foster such partnerships. This article describes the efforts that have been carried out over the last few years in Michigan to develop parent/professional partnerships. It is not intended to be a scholarly review of the literature, but rather an explanation of strategies that have been used successfully to develop this important interface. Particular emphasis is given to describing the establishment of partnerships between parents of children with special health care needs and nurses and physicians. It is hoped that the sharing of such information will assist others who are just beginning such efforts.

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Parent-to-parent support: a critical component of health care services for families.

Families of children with chronic medical conditions or disabilities face many unique difficulties. It is often necessary for them to assimilate technical medical information and participate in important decisions regarding their children's care before they have had time to adjust to their children's condition. Health care providers are not always available to help parents learn how to function in their dramatically changed roles. To adjust to their new parenting roles and work through feelings of confusion, denial, anxiety, guilt, anger, and depression, parents of children with special health care needs need opportunities to fully vent feelings, and to experience the grieving processes in their own way and at their own pace, in a nonthreatening, nonjudgmental environment. An informal support network is a powerful tool for accomplishing these tasks, for teaching day-to-day coping skills, and for supporting the establishment of new value systems that incorporate families' unique needs. The literature on family support documents ways in which parents of children with special health care needs are particularly qualified to help each other. This article briefly describes the philosophy of parent-to-parent support, its unique contributions in the health care setting, and the ways that health care providers can assist in creating an environment in which parents and professionals can work together more effectively.

Child Health Services↗