Preventive approach that uses culturally sensitive

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) Program

High-risk adolescents can benefit from Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a family-based intervention and preventive approach that uses culturally sensitive, contextually adaptive clinical practice to address complex multifaceted problems. This program was originally developed in the late 1960s and 1970s. Adolescents are the primary focus of the FFT clinical paradigm, which emphasizes reducing risk factors and boosting protective factors, especially within the family context.
Target Population
The program has successfully treated at-risk youth and their families, including those from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, ages 11 to 18. Young people in this category are typically involved in the juvenile justice system or at risk for delinquency, violence, substance abuse, and oppositional defiant disorder.

Program Components
FFT entails 8-12 sessions of one hour of direct service for less severe instances, whereas more complex cases may require up to 30 sessions. Both in-clinic and home-based versions of this therapy—which typically lasts for three months—are available. Several components (therapeutic theory, empirically verified concepts, and clinical experience) are combined in FFT to create a comprehensive clinical model. This model has five distinct stages: engagement, motivation, relational assessment, behavior change, and generalization. A therapist’s primary goal during the engagement phase is to build and sustain a connection with the client-centered on the latter’s strengths. This stage aims to show clients that therapists value and respect them as individuals and to increase their trust in the FFT therapy process.

In the motivational phase, therapists focus on the adolescent’s family relationships. Adolescents and their family members need to feel encouraged to continue counseling at this stage, so they do not drop out. Additionally, therapists work on alleviating the pessimism and lack of confidence common among high-risk adolescents and their families. The idea that a successful therapy outcome can be maintained over time is hammered home during this stage. The relational assessment entails developing treatment areas for the behavior modification and generalization stages and examining the family’s relational dynamics. During this transitional stage, the focus switches from the individual to the interpersonal nature of the problem. Values, interpersonal patterns, sources of resistance, and resources are just a few of the areas that therapists focus on while working with families and other groups.

Through targeted behavioral treatments, problematic behaviors and their associated patterns in the home environment are diminished or eliminated throughout the behavior change phase (Parenting, problem-solving, and conflict-resolution training). The therapist’s goal is to facilitate behavior modification while also considering the strengths and social requirements of the client’s immediate family.
The family’s ability to make good use of community services across settings is a primary focus during the generalization phase, as is the prevention of relapse. Family ties and other networks of support are emphasized.
Parenting with love and limits (PLL)
Steered in Florida as part of the Florida Redirection Project, which aims to divert juveniles from residences to community-based services, PLL is an approach to rehabilitating juvenile offenders that is community-based and family-focused. PLL aims to treat severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children and adolescents and instruct families on restoring a loving connection by reinstating adult authority through consistent limits.
Target Population
Children and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 18 who have serious behavioral and emotional issues (such as oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and attention deficit) and frequently co-occurring issues such as depression, substance abuse, property destruction, severe truancy, domestic abuse, or suicidal behaviors; the program also has been administered to youths with behavioral patterns that are less severe.

Program Components
The primary tenets of Parenting with Love and Limits (PLL) include: conducting family and group therapy concurrently over six to eight consecutive weeks; containing between six and eight teenagers and their families, as is recommended for each group; Utilizing the Stages of Readiness Scale as an overlay to win over resistant parents; conducting an assessment of fidelity utilizing the following four scales in addition to a manualized curriculum: Monthly PLL Report, Group Fidelity Checklist, Family Therapy Fidelity Checklist, and Video Supervision Employing Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR).
Additionally, the following are components of the PLL system: Six sessions designed for several families will be led by one clinician and one co-facilitator each.

These sessions will include age-specific breakout sessions, role-playing, group discussions, and videotapes. Six to eight individual family intensive therapy sessions lasting between one and two hours each, to be held either in an outpatient facility or the client’s own home, to practice the skills gained in the group environment. When working with young people with more severe issues, such as interaction with the juvenile or criminal justice system, the number of sessions might be raised up to twenty. The combination of group sessions and family therapy offered through PLL is intended to assist families in applying learned skills and concepts to real-life scenarios to reduce the risk of future relapse.