FFT in Foster Care (FFT-FC) is a relationally focused and trauma-informed treatment model for teens in the Foster Care System that increases the likelihood of successful positive adjustment and permanency placement. The model is a comprehensive and systematic approach to helping youth and families overcome individual and relational trauma in order to promote stable foster care and long-term permanency placements. The model uses the evidence-based and relationally-focused techniques of  core FFT to help engage, develop a family focus to treatment, and help families unify for successful permanency placement.

FFT in Child Welfare is a contextualization of FFT that integrates family-based therapeutic case management services with the core FFT model to provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to helping families. FFT in Child Welfare is a comprehensive model intended to provide families all across the developmental spectrum a pathway to engagement in treatment, develop skills to stabilize and work through daily family issues, and take those skills and generalize them to success in managing future problems and thus, becoming self-sufficient.

FFT with Deaf Services Population is a contextualization of FFT that integrates family-based therapeutic case management services with the core FFT model to provide a comprehensive and holistic approach with families who have deaf/hard of hearing members. FFT with Deaf Services Population is a comprehensive model intended to provide families all across the developmental spectrum a pathway to engagement in treatment, develop skills to stabilize and work through daily family issues, and take those skills and generalize them to success in managing future problems and thus, becoming self-sufficient. The contextualization of FFT provides these services to the deaf/hard of hearing community using ASL adapted training curriculums and family therapy sessions.

FFT in Behavioral Health (FFT-BH) is a contextualization of FFT for use with families who have members involved in the mental health and medical systems and brings a family relational focus to behavioral health.  FFT-BH is a home-based, intensive behavioral health intervention with an integrated case management practice that holistically treats the needs of the family directly within their ecology. FFT-BH helps engage individuals and their families into treatment; develop skills to stabilize and work through daily family issues; and generalize those skills in managing future difficulties as they move toward self-sufficiency to overcome the struggles of acute and chronic mental health problems.

The Clinical Case Management intervention is evidence-informed and guided by the same underlying principles and change mechanisms that have been proven to be effective in Functional Family Therapy. The intervention is collaborative, alliance based, family focused, trauma informed, focused on daily functioning, developmentally appropriate and uses clinical decision making tools to inform case management decisions and integrate family voice. This is a comprehensive intervention that begins by engaging families, assessing their individualized needs and building within family motivation to successfully connect to community services in order to build families self-sufficiency. Clinical Case Management takes a developmental and systemic approach to work with individuals or families based on where they are in the family life cycle to build the support and motivation necessary to sustain lasting relationships with supports within their own communities.

FFT-Adult is a short-term intervention program aimed at helping young adult offenders successfully reintegrate into their communities and homes following incarceration.  The ultimate goal of FFT-Adult is to help the offender learn the evidence-based life skills necessary for success, gain vocational and housing support, and learn to build and maintain a supportive family to help them through the transition by managing the problems of everyday life, in particular, the family and community factors that put offenders at risk for future illegal activities.

FFT-Care4 is a systematic combination of the FFT measurement system (Sexton, 2011) and the web-based measurement feedback system (the Contextualized Feedback System/CFS by Len Bickman of Vanderbilt University) into an interactive web based measurement feedback system, FFT-Care4. It is accessed through the Care4 software system. FFT-Care4 consists of brief and psychometrically sound measures to be completed by clients (family voice), therapists, and supervisors that inform session planning. It includes easy to access real time feedback presented to therapists systematically for use in sessions and treatment planning. It provides immediate feedback on changes in client conditions and context so that these events can be quickly incorporated into the FFT treatment.

The Functional Family Therapy (FFT) training program is designed for adult learning, aimed to maximize learning and meet the needs of working professionals in agency settings. Training is customized based on the specific adaptation. All training follows the most recent Blueprint manual (Alexander, Pugh, Parsons, & Sexton, 2000).

All team members get exposure to clinically relevant and specific training activities emphasizing active learning approaches.  Our emphasis is the translation of the theory of FFT into the effective practice of FFT. Our training is based on three general components: knowledge-based training, clinically-based experience and guided supervision and continuous quality improvement and support.

• Knowledge-based training.The knowledge component of training is based on an online learning management system called FFT Adaptware that allows the learner to go at their own pace,in a way that matches their learning style.

• Clinically-based experience and guided supervision.  Training activities involve workshops, online advanced training, weekly case consultation with an FFT Consultant in Phase 1, supervisors training and consultation in Phase 2 and beyond, plus demonstration/practice workshops where we help therapists work with families in real time so that each trainee can gain hands-on experience.

• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and Support. Treatment fidelity and model adherence are central to effective outcomes in Functional Family Therapy.  We view the measurement of model fidelity as a CQI task that should be integrated into the ongoing operations of any FFT Team. In 3 major research studies, model adherence, as measured by our FFT Treatment and Adherence measurement tool, was directly linked to family outcomes.  Other FFT measurements provide feedback to the agency on model adherence and fidelity. Site Support throughout all Phases is provided by the FFT Management.