Complex Care Program Helps Children Reach Their Full Potential

Resources are out there, but sometimes they are hard to find. Connecting with both your medical team and other families who have children with similar conditions (often via social media) parents can learn what is available in their community and in their state. Resources differ from one county to another and certainly from one state to another, so it is good to find a group close to your home. With the variety of families and groups who are treated in the Complex Care Clinic, they are all frequently learning from each other about what is available to families.

The complex care team at Arkansas Children’s works closely with families, caregivers and community providers to coordinate care and provide personalized treatment services.

This includes:

• Development of a comprehensive care plan
• Creating an individualized nutrition plan and feeding schedule
• Addressing oral and texture aversion issues
• Monitoring growth and development
• Identification, enrollment and monitoring of progress in development therapies
• Ongoing psychological and social support
• Arranging home health care and respite care

Frequently children with medical complexity have developmental concerns such as developmental delay, intellectual disability or neurological issues such as seizures or difficulty walking or talking.

Common diagnoses include:

• Cerebral palsy
• Complications of prematurity
• Congenital diaphragmatic hernia
• Congenital differences or birth defects
• Craniofacial differences such as cleft lip and palate
• Genetic syndromes
• Hypotonia
• Mitochondrial disease
• Muscular dystrophies
• Neurodevelopmental disabilities
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Respiratory system anomalies
• Severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy with significant neurological damage
• Short gut syndrome

About the Complex Care Program

The Complex Care Program at Arkansas Children's is a multidisciplinary clinic (essentially a one-stop shop) to address a variety of needs at one time. The team includes doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists, speech therapists and dieticians, so we can take a more comprehensive approach to meet the family's needs for their child. We work to look at the child's whole picture (medical/educational/social) to try to ensure that as many needs as possible are being met.

Children with medical complexity typically have multiple chronic medical diagnoses or concerns.

The Complex Care Program was designed to address the needs of children who:

• Have at least two medically complex conditions and are followed by at least two pediatric subspecialists
• Are dependent on special medical technology such as G-tube or other tube feedings, oxygen or other respiratory support
• Born with extremely low birth weight or congenital anomalies and or syndromes
• Have chronic neurodevelopmental disabilities

Contact our Complex Care Program team to better understand our services or to schedule an appointment for your child. Your local doctor can also refer you to us by calling 501-364-3030.