Clinical Best Practices, Wraparound and Workforce Development

Functional Family Therapy

University of Maryland, Baltimore. School of Social Work. Institute for Innovation & Implementation (University of Maryland, Baltimore. School of Social Work, 2012)

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is one of five prioritized evidence-based practices chosen by Maryland's Children's Cabinet for Statewide implementation in an effort to reduce costly out-of-home placements and provide empirically supported community-based practices that address key outcomes (e.g., long-term rates or rearrest, school attendance, ect.). Maryland's FFT programs data for fiscal year (FY) 2001 indicate that a diverse group of 866 youth and families received FFT, and that the majority of youth had positive outcomes at discharge from FFT. Further, only a small percentage of youth who received services were ultimately committed to the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) because of a new referral or arrest after discharge from FFT.