Jefferson Center for Mental Health - Functional Family Therapy

Functional Family Therapy

Jefferson Center for Mental Health has a new team of clinicians offering a unique and brief form of family therapy to residents of Jefferson, Gilpin and Clear Creek counties of Colorado .

Functional Family Therapy is an evidence based intense form of therapy working with families that have children over the age of 10 years old for an average of four months. They work on issues within the family dealing with family conflict, school problems, drug and alcohol issues, oppositional and defiant behaviors, family communication problems, juvenile justice involvement, and many other externalizing behaviors.

Services can be provided in homes or office based. Functional Family Therapy is accessible to people of all income levels and cultural backgrounds.

What is FFT?

Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an empirically grounded, well-documented and highly successful family intervention program for dysfunctional youth. FFT has been applied to a wide range of problem youth and their families in various multi-ethnic, multicultural contexts. Target populations range from at-risk preadolescents to youth with very serious problems such as conduct disorder, violent acting-out, and substance abuse. While FFT targets youth aged 11-18, younger siblings of referred adolescents often become part of the intervention process. Intervention ranges from, on average, 8-12 one-hour sessions for mild cases and up to 30 sessions of direct services for more difficult situations. In most programs sessions are spread over a three-month period. FFT has been conducted in both clinic settings as an outpatient therapy and as a home-based model.

Referrals

Referrals can be made to Functional Family Therapy through a variety of public or private agencies, such as:

Social Services
Juvenile Justice
School
Public or private hospitals
Private insurers and Practitioners, or
Clinicians from within Jefferson Center.

The first meeting between the Functional Family therapist and the family is an assessment of the appropriateness of a Functional Family intervention. The therapist will then contact the referring person or referral source regarding whether or not the case is appropriate or not, and when services can start, if appropriate.

Consumers: If this program sounds helpful to you and your family, please discuss the program with your therapist, counselor or social worker.

For therapists (to make a referral): Complete the Family Services Intensive Treatment Teams Referral Form with as much information as possible, especially addresses and telephone numbers, so that the Functional Family Therapists will be able to make contact with the family and fax to (303) 432-5262 or mail it to: Functional Family Therapy, 9485 West Colfax Avenue, Lakewood, CO 80215. If you need further information, please feel free to contact the Functional Family Therapy secretaries at (303) 432-5238.