A Parent's Perspective. Family-Centered Care

In summary, although I feel that family-centered care has progressed in the last several years, much remains to be done. With improvement in research and technology come new challenges for medical professionals and also new liabilities. I have found individuals who were not interested in working with my son because of the risk in decision making and liability his medical conditions pose. I would like to see the next generation of medical personnel be trained to accept the challenge of multihandicapped and medically fragile children. While our current system puts pressure on physicians and hospitals to protect their business interests, I would like to see this change to allow for more sensitized and comprehensive care for all patients. My child's medical needs will be ongoing, and I know that many more doctors will come and go throughout his lifetime. What I would like to see for him (and others) is a more personalized continuum of quality care. I want him to feel, at whatever his ability to understand, that the medical professionals caring for him want him to thrive, be healthy, and feel food about himself.