Special Health Care Needs Main

Funding for this project was provided by
The Missouri Department of Health,

Division of Maternal, Child, and Family Health

Special Health Care Needs Resources Summary:

"Parenting a Child with a Disability" Guidesheet

National Resources for Parents

Flier

Poster

Order Materials

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According to the Bureau of Special Health Care Needs, an estimated 270,000 of Missouri's children have special health care needs. Children considered to be in this category have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and also require health and related services at a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. Examples of special health care needs are:

Delayed speech development
Behavioral problems such as Attention Deficit Disorder
Learning disabilities
Chronic ear infections
Inappropriate height for weight for age
Chronic infections
Asthma
Heart defects or conditions
Scoliosis
Diabetes
Seizures
Genetic conditions

Many parents of children with special health care needs report that they need three things to make their parenting roles easier:

They want factual information about their children's conditions;
they want to know where they can get the services, therapies, treatments, and whatever else their child's condition might require;
and they want support from their families, friends, and from the professionals with whom their families are working.

ParentLink has a history of providing services for families of children with special health care needs, whether parents are looking for information, referrals to programs, or just someone to talk to. Thanks to funding from Missouri’s Department of Health, we have added many new materials for parents of children with special health care needs to our loan library.

Our Library Listing contains materials that may be of interest to parents of children with special health care needs. Parents and professionals who are interested in borrowing these items can call our WarmLine at 1-800-552-8522 or email their requests.

We have also developed a media campaign related to special health care needs. We have designed a poster, a flier, a listing of national resources for parents of children with special health care needs, and a guidesheet entitled "Parenting a Child with a Disability." The models and actors in the materials for the public education campaign are all real people who live in Columbia, Missouri.