Program Description

Indiana Family Project

Overview

The Indiana Family Project (IFP) is a county-wide program for youth involved with the juvenile justice system in Monroe County, Indiana. The project was created as a result of more than a year of relationship building and hard work on the part of the community “champions” to build support and obtain funding. IFP is a nonprofit provider of intensive family intervention services. IFP uses Functional Family Therapy (FFT), which is a family model intervention created by Dr. Thomas Sexton and Dr. James Alexander. The program is run under the auspices of the Center for Adolescent and Family Services (CAFS) at Indiana University, of which Dr. Sexton is the clinical director. The staff consists of a team of five therapists (all doctoral students), a project leader, and an office administrator.

The program is funded by a grant from the Indiana Department of Corrections. This funding is directed from the DOC to the Family Court. The Family Court contracts with the Indiana Family Project to be the service provider.

Most youth in the program:

• are between 14 and 15 years old, but must be under age 18
• have been in trouble more than once
• have a diagnosis of oppositional defiant or conduct disorder or another mental health issue
• have used substances, bordering on or including substance abuse
• have trouble in school and have an antisocial peer group
• have high levels of family conflict
• are very well known to the juvenile court system

An intake Probation Officer performs a risk assessment, and an intake assessment team assigns a risk level. The youth is referred to the Indiana Family Project and the project leader assigns the case to a trained FFT therapist. Services are delivered under the guidance of the FFT clinical supervisor and are monitored by the probation officer. Referrals come from the Probation Department if the youth is diverted pre-adjudication, and from the Family Court Judge if the youth is diverted post-adjudication.

FFT is an integrated system for clinical assessment and successful family-based treatment of at-risk adolescents. The target group is youth age 18 and under, and their families, whose problems range from acting out to conduct disorder to alcohol/substance abuse. A family preservation team is assigned to work with the family as they progress through three stages: Phase One—engage and motivate; Phase Two—change behavior; Phase Three—generalize change. Mental health services are included in FFT, and youth and families are not referred to an outside mental health service provider. Transition planning begins with the start of treatment so a plan is in place upon a youth’s discharge from the program.

All FFT programs are connected by a computer database that provides quality assurance. The model has been successfully replicated in six separate sites in Indiana and 140 more sites around the world. FFT has demonstrated positive outcomes across a wide range of youth and communities, including:

• Significant and long-term reductions in youths re-offending and violent behavior
• Significant effectiveness in reducing sibling entry into high-risk behavior
• Very low dropout and high completion rates
• Positive impacts on family conflict, family communication, parenting, and youth problem behavior
• Long-term savings to taxpayers per youth in reduced victim and criminal justice costs.

References

Personal communication with Tom Sexton, Director, Indiana University Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology.

Site visit to program on January 21, 2005.

Program Contact

Thomas L. Sexton, Ph.D.
Director
Center for Adolescent and Family Studies
201 North Rose Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: 812-856-8350
Fax: 812-856-8317