What is the MATCH Program?

MATCH Staff with a Foster Mom and Child

MATCH (Making All The Children Healthy) is a collaborative program with the Baltimore City Department of Social Services that provides health care coordination and medical case management for Baltimore City children in foster care.  This program was launched in 2009 to ensure that these children get the health care services they need.

All children need regular check-ups and other health care services as they grow, but for the child placed in foster care these services can be even more critical. Children in foster care are more likely to have physical, mental health, and developmental problems than children not in foster care. Children in foster care may have been exposed to abuse, neglect, or other harmful environments that may have effected their health. Therefore, it is important that they receive the medical, dental, and mental health services they need. 

The MATCH Program’s goal is to assure that all of these needs are being met by increasing care coordination and works to simplify the structure of the health and mental health care delivery system to ease access while maintaining and promoting continuity of care and a healthy home. The staff work closely with BCDSS case workers, foster parents, private foster care agency staff, health care providers and Medicaid programs. 

Services provided include:

  • Coordination of the mandated comprehensive health assessment for all children newly entering foster care which includes:
         o Initial health screen (within 5 days)
         o Comprehensive medical exam
         o Dental exam (children 3 years and older)
         o Mental health assessment
         o Developmental assessment (children less than 3 years)
  • Medical case management by nurses for children with complex medical needs and medical case management by licensed social workers for children with complex mental health needs.
  • Monitoring treatment of youth with mental health needs including youth on multiple psychotropic medicines or determined high risk.
  • Coordination of health care for all children in foster care including assuring routine medical and dental exams are completed and maintaining medical records.
  • Enrollment in Maryland Medical Assistance and annual redeterminations.

Read more about the MATCH program in the National Association of Social Work’s (NASW) Social Work Policy Institute report  and policy brief  about improving and streamlining the health care children receive, looking at both policy and service delivery structures and cross-system communications. 

Baltimore MATCH

313 North Gay Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202

443-423-5960

Fax Number 443-423-5995