FFT Partners annual report is an important way to highlight the scope of our work and the significant successes the agencies, teams, and therapists we work with have accomplished with families. For us, annual reports serve an additional and important feature; the annual report is part of our commitment to Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Internally, this report serves as a test of our training activities, our consultation services, and the subsequent outcomes with families. The information in the report serves as the “evidence base” for our training and to improve each aspect of the services we provide. This information becomes the source of the changes and improvement in the services we provide to better support communities.
Our activities this year were driven by our organizational mission:
"FFT Partners is a FFT training and research organization that works to improve the lives of families and communities through alliance-based partnerships. We will uphold the highest ethical standards and model fidelity combined with innovation, collaboration and accountability to make proven practices accessible to those in need."
We promote a practice of high Fidelity FFT that:
-
Treats families with respect, making them partners in treatment activities
-
Integrates families’ voices in all phases of treatment
-
Leverages technology to improve clinical decision making and family outcomes
-
Practices evidence-based programs in evidence-based ways to maintain model fidelity
-
Develops adaptations and adjustments responsive to the needs of families and agencies
-
Works collaboratively with our community agency partners
This year was not a typical one. The year was marked by the uncertainty of COVID, questions about telehealth vs. in person meetings, changing mandates, and guidelines for staying safe and healthy. For agencies, it has been a challenge to determine how to carry out daily business and retain staff while keeping everyone safe. For clinicians, the year has been both a personal and professional challenge in finding ways to safely meet with families and how best to provide services. For the families our teams served, the challenges of the year have been one more barrier in keeping themselves and their children safe. For all of us, this year has been uncharted territory. We found the work of the agencies and clinicians we work with to be brave, important to the families they service, and incredibly creative in adapting to the difficult conditions.
As you will see, the successful outcomes of this important work has made a significant difference in the lives of those with whom we work. We thank you for your patience, perseverance, and hard work. We are honored to work with such dedicated agencies and clinicians; you all have stepped up to the challenges of the past year in incredible ways.
In the pages that follow, we provide an overview of:
-
The range of agencies and clinicians who we trained
-
The “evidence base” of our training that shows that clinicians trained successfully obtained the necessary knowledge of FFT and were able to translate that knowledge in practice
-
The range of diverse families who received FFT treatment
-
The outcome of those services, including the progress made, improvements in how families work together to solve problems, and the overall satisfaction of services experienced by families
-
The growth of our FFT-Partners team and our training procedures
This information is detailed and provides a deep window into the outcomes of FFT. We have this level of detailed information because of the Care4 system. Not only is Care4 a precision-based mental health approach that we use to guide clinical decision making, but it is a tool to look back and answer the question—did we help the families and youth we served?
Thomas L. Sexton, Ph.D, ABPP, CEO
Peter Ranalli, COO