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Functional Family Therapy

Our main objective is to keep children out of the juvenile justice system and at home with their families.

FFT is a highly successful family intervention for at-risk and juvenile justice involved youth. Its high rates of effectiveness have been recognized by:

  • The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
  • The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
  • The Center for Disease Control and Prevention
  • The U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence.

The CATS Functional Family Therapy (FFT) Program represents an expansion of our clinic treatment and focuses on adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 who have been referred to our clinic through family court. The treatment in this program is evidence-based and helps children receive the care that they need to redirect their energy into positive behaviors without the need for further court intervention.

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

The children who benefit from this program are youth and their families, whose problems range from acting out to conduct disorder to alcohol/substance abuse. Often these families tend to have limited resources, histories of failure, a range of diagnoses and exposure to multiple systems. FFT can be provided in a variety of contexts, including schools, child welfare, probation, parole/aftercare, mental health, and as an alternative to incarceration or out-of-home placement.

Click here for more information on this nationally recognized program model.