Putting the Pieces Together: Applying a Family-Centered, Problem-Solving Approach to Family Treatment Court Staffing and Court Hearings
Overview
May 25, 2021 | 11 – 12:30 PT | 12 – 1:30 MT | 1 – 2:30 CT | 2-3:30 ET
As the field prepares to celebrate National Reunification Month in June, this Practice Academy course discusses key components of a family-centered, behavior-focused, problem-solving approach in FTC pre-court staffing and court hearings. FTCs focused primarily on a parent’s recovery when they first emerged in the mid-1990s. Over the past decade, however, many FTCs evolved to meet the individual needs of parents and children. Still, services felt disconnected from each another and often overlooked the health of parent-child or family relationships.
Today, model FTCs treat the parent, child, and the family unit as a whole — allowing families to break the cycle of substance use, child abuse, and neglect — while paving the way for healthy, stable home environments where children can thrive. This course makes the abstract concepts concrete, illustrating how teams can apply these principles at FTC pre-court staffing and court hearings to improve outcomes for families in all FTC models (integrated, parallel, and hybrid).
Watch the short, animated videos demonstrating a model FTC pre-court staffing and court hearing prior to the Live Conversation on May 25. Then, use the Team Discussion tool to guide conversation with your team while assessing your strengths and challenges in adopting this approach. Finally, join the Live Conversation on May 25 to hear from an FTC team who has made this “enhanced approach” to staffing and court hearings their “new normal.” Following the Live Conversation, use the Take Action tool to shift learning into action and monitor the effect on family outcomes.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn how your FTC pre-court staffing and court hearings shape the path for families working toward reunification and successful case closure.
- Learn how to ensure FTC pre-court staffing and court hearings address the family’s needs.
- Examine how to implement effective engagement strategies for families affected by SUDs by shifting from “problem reporting” to “problem solving” in your pre-court staffing.
- Use the Team Discussion tool and Take Action tool to create an action plan to guide implementation of this approach in your FTC.
If the “what” and “why” behind applying a family-centered, problem-solving approach in your FTC is new to you, please check out the Materials and TA Resources section in this course for materials that cover the basics behind these concepts.
The videos highlight one family during two different phases of their case. The first video focuses on strategies for early engagement while the mother has been in the FTC for four weeks and is in phase one. The second video follows the same family, now five months into their case and discussing reunification. The model presented in these videos is an example of an integrated family treatment court. While we recognize the differences of integrated and parallel model FTCs, many of these concepts do still apply regardless of the model, although may look different in practice. For more discussion about how a parallel FTC has shifted to a family-centered approach, join us for the live webinar on May 25th or watch the recording.
The pre-court staffing and court hearing you are about to observe focuses on applying a family-centered, problem-solving approach to serving a family in the early engagement stages of the family treatment court. We acknowledge that the team members and roles represented in this video may not be a direct reflection of your team and that teams may not staff every family in this way each week.
The pre-court staffing and court hearing you are about to observe focuses on applying a family-centered, problem-solving approach to serving a family in the reunification stages of the family treatment court. We acknowledge that the team members and roles represented in this video may not be a direct reflection of your team and that teams may not staff every family in this way each week.
- Adopting a Family-Centered, Problem-Solving Approach in FTC Staffing and Court Hearing Resources:
- Previous Learning Academy Courses:
Learning Opportunities
Grantee TTA Projects
OJJDP and CFF currently offer in-depth technical assistance to six Statewide System Improvement Program (SSIP) Awardees: Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, New York, and Guam. Find out more about how these states are implementing systems reform to expand FTCs’ scale and scope—increasing FTCs reach into child welfare and substance use disorder treatment systems and ensuring the delivery of a full range of comprehensive services for families.
In 2016 the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funded 12 FDCs. This funding opportunity aligns with the national FDC movement working to increase FDC’s capacity and scope of services to children and families. Of the 12 new OJJDP grantees, six sites were awarded implementation funding to create new FDC programs within their jurisdictions and six were awarded enhancement funding to expand the capacity and augment services among their existing FDC programs. Three tribal sites were awarded implementation funding to help bring Tribal Healing to Wellness Courts to tribal jurisdictions.
