What is FFT?

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an empirically grounded, well-documented and highly successful family intervention for at-risk and juvenile justice involved youth.  Its high rates of effectiveness have been recognized by:

FFT is one of the nationally recognized Blueprints programs.  It is also one of the only interventions named by the US Surgeon General as a model program for seriously delinquent youths.

How does FFT use a "home based" model?

• All services are provided in the home or office

• The FFT program is short term (8 to 12 sessions for mild cases)

• Caseloads for therapists are small (12-15 cases)

• FFT therapists work in teams and provide coverage for each other's caseloads

• Although the presenting client is an adolescent, FFT does not see clients individually but as a family.  This empowers parents to solve problems in the future without return to FFT.

What is the focus of the FFT therapist?

• Strengthening family relationships

• Finding the "noble intent" by reframing negative and blaming statements

• Highlighting assets

• Decreasing risk factors

• Discovering the sequence to problematic behaviors

• Implementing a behavior change plan that addresses the family's "organizing them"

• Involvement of all family members

• FFT therapists map change through a series of assessments and questionnaires, which allows them to maintain focus on the motivation of each individual as well as targeted behaviors.

What makes FFT work?

FFT focuses on targeting risk and protective factors that can be changed, and then systematically works at changing those factors.  This is done in three different phases of varying length including:

• Engagement and Motivation: Emphasizes family protective factors, a family-focused perception of problems, and engagement

• Behavior Change:  Develops and implements intermediate and long-term plans for behavioral change while empowering the family to replace maladaptive responses with functional behaviors.

• Generalization:  Focus on relapse prevention, maintaining and generalizing changes to other situations.

Why the whole family?

FFT works because it encompasses the whole family.  The parents or guardians of an adolescent will attend every family therapy session.  FFT is also useful for helping to prevent younger siblings in the family from penetrating the system of care.

What can a family expect with FFT?

• Therapy provided by a Master's Level licensed clinician

• Assessment and treatment that addresses the youth's problems in the context of their family, school, peers, and community.

• Collaboration with parents and caregivers to more effectively address the needs of the youth

• Understanding the relationship between the youth's problems and the factors which contribute to them

• Focus on helping parents and caregivers build supportive social networks

• Emphasis on long-term change that families can maintain after the program ends

• Inclusion of all members of the family and/or household

• Commitment to keeping the youth in the home while FFT is involved

• Development of a family crisis plan for the parents to implement during crisis events.  The emphasis is on empowering the parents and family to successfully decrease the frequency and intensity of crisis events.

Population:
FFT is designed for treating at risk adolescents from ages 11-18.  FFT has been shown to be effective in treating adolescents with Conduct Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, as well as alcohol and other drug abuse disorders.  Some of the characteristics of families who are seen in FFT are those who are hopeless, angry, unmotivated, have a history of failure, and often have limited resources.

Licensed By:
Ohio Department of Mental Health

Contact:  
Daphne Luttrell, Intake Coordinator, at 416-8709


Jerome Dyson, Director of Outpatient Services, at 416-8789