May is National Foster Care Month. And with 463,000 American children and youth in foster care, it's important to know how this system works, and the many types of fostering available. And to remember that no child who has been removed from their home has had it easy.
Dr. Sarah Springer is a general pediatrician with Kids Plus Pediatrics, who thoroughly enjoys spending time with children. She especially enjoys caring for children with complex medical and developmental needs and partnering with their families to help those children to thrive.
She joins Melanie to discuss the difference between kinship & foster care, what is expected of foster parents, and the goal of reuniting families when the biological parents are ready again.
Selected Podcast
Kinship Care & National Foster Care Month
Featuring:
Dr. Springer serves as the Medical Director for Adoption Health Services of Western Pennsylvania, a special service we offer here at Kids Plus and has provided specialty health services to domestically and internationally adopted children since 1995. She chairs the Task Force on Foster Care for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and she previously chaired the AAP’s Section on Adoption and Foster Care, collaborating with pediatricians around the country to advocate for the needs of children in foster care and those who’ve been adopted.
When she was young, her favorite toy was her dollhouse. She was constantly remodeling it, making intricate wood furniture, wallpapering the walls, and even sewing new curtains and upholstery for it. She volunteered in a museum with a large dollhouse collection, so she had lots of inspiration, and an easy place to spend her allowance, for her dollhouse at home. Now that she’s grown up, she does the same thing rehabbing her house in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Springer regularly speaks and writes about adoption-related health concerns for parent groups, medical professionals, and other professionals who care for children. An adoptive parent herself, Dr. Springer is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Pediatric Residency Program.
Dr. Springer’s hobbies include sewing and needlecrafts — those dollhouse skills are still a lot of fun! — and she enjoys hiking, snorkeling, and traveling to off-the-beaten-path kinds of places.
Her favorite place to “play” in Pittsburgh is hiking through the woods in any of the city’s big, beautiful parks. She also loves coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnels at night, when that great view of downtown pops out of the tunnel and lights up right before your eyes.
Dr. Sarah Springer
Dr. Sarah Springer is a general pediatrician with Kids Plus Pediatrics, who thoroughly enjoys spending time with children. She especially enjoys caring for children with complex medical and developmental needs and partnering with their families to help those children to thrive.Dr. Springer serves as the Medical Director for Adoption Health Services of Western Pennsylvania, a special service we offer here at Kids Plus and has provided specialty health services to domestically and internationally adopted children since 1995. She chairs the Task Force on Foster Care for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and she previously chaired the AAP’s Section on Adoption and Foster Care, collaborating with pediatricians around the country to advocate for the needs of children in foster care and those who’ve been adopted.
When she was young, her favorite toy was her dollhouse. She was constantly remodeling it, making intricate wood furniture, wallpapering the walls, and even sewing new curtains and upholstery for it. She volunteered in a museum with a large dollhouse collection, so she had lots of inspiration, and an easy place to spend her allowance, for her dollhouse at home. Now that she’s grown up, she does the same thing rehabbing her house in Pittsburgh.
Dr. Springer regularly speaks and writes about adoption-related health concerns for parent groups, medical professionals, and other professionals who care for children. An adoptive parent herself, Dr. Springer is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh Pediatric Residency Program.
Dr. Springer’s hobbies include sewing and needlecrafts — those dollhouse skills are still a lot of fun! — and she enjoys hiking, snorkeling, and traveling to off-the-beaten-path kinds of places.
Her favorite place to “play” in Pittsburgh is hiking through the woods in any of the city’s big, beautiful parks. She also loves coming through the Fort Pitt Tunnels at night, when that great view of downtown pops out of the tunnel and lights up right before your eyes.