Exemplary			6-18			Family Therapy
			Functional Family Therapy
			Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an empirically-grounded, family-based intervention program for acting-out youth. A major goal of Functional Family Therapy is to improve family communication and supportiveness while decreasing the intense negativity so often characteristic of these families. Other goals include helping family members identify what they desire from each other, identifying possible solutions to family problems, and developing powerful behavior change strategies. Although originally designed to treat middle class families with delinquent and "pre-delinquent" youth, the program has recently included poor, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural populations, with very serious problems such as conduct disorder, adolescent drug abuse, and violence. The program is conducted by family therapists working with each individual family in a clinical setting, which is standard for most family therapy programs; more recent programs with multiproblem families involve in-home treatment. The model includes four phases: (1) an introduction/ Impression Phase; (2) a Motivation (Therapy) Phase; (3) a Behavior Change Phase; and (4) a Generalization (more multisystem focused) Phase. Each phase includes assessment, specific techniques of intervention, and therapist goals and qualifications. The intervention involves a strong cognitive/attributional component which is integrated into systemic skill-training in family communication, parenting skills, and conflict management skills. The FFT model has been evaluated many times beginning in 1971. The model's effectiveness has been independently demonstrated with a between-groups design, and its impact asserted at additional performance sites. FFT has demonstrated a significant reduction in recidivism when compared to alternative treatments and no treatment conditions. With less serious offenders, reductions ranged from 50-75 %, and with very severe cases a 35 % reduction in reoffense rate. These outcomes have also been associated with dramatically reduced treatment costs. In addition to outcome evaluations, FFT has focused on in-session therapist characteristics and family interaction processes, which are predictive of positive change. The most notable process changes appear to be in family communications patterns, especially the negative/blaming communications patterns. Process and outcome data demonstrate that therapists must be relationally sensitive and focused, as well as capable of clear structuring, in order to produce significantly fewer drop-outs and lower recidivism.
						James F. Alexander, Ph.D.
						1329 Behavioral Science University of Utah
						Salt Lake City, UT   84112
						801 581-6538
						jfafft@psych.utah.edu