Services for Families Overview
We aim to build on family strengths, to repair relationships and to create opportunities for families to succeed. We want children and young people to have positive relationships with their parents and care givers. To do this we will listen to your experiences, guide and coach new skills, challenge thinking and offer alternative views when necessary whilst respecting you, your family and diverse needs.
What exactly is Functional Family Therapy?
Functional Family Therapy (FFT) is an evidence-based family prevention and intervention programme.
FFT has been applied successfully to a wide range of families where there is a young person with significant emotional, social and/or behavioural difficulties. It has also been commonly used for families where there is a risk of family breakdown.
The programme is designed for young people aged 10 to 17 and their families where:
There are concerns that the family may break down or the young person may go into care because of high family conflict.
The young person is involved in anti-social or offending behaviours and may be at risk of custody.
The young person frequently goes missing, there are concerns around child sexual or gang exploitation (CSE and CCE) and/or there is a lack of parental influence over the young person.
FFT is a short-term therapy usually consisting of 12-20 sessions, with the option to add more if required. The time-limited intervention is completed within 5 months.
Our flexible sessions are built around your family life and our therapists can either meet you in your own home or make use of any community facilities. We always work with the whole family including key members who may influence family relationships.
Before starting the intervention, our therapists will meet with you to introduce FFT. This is a good opportunity for you to ask questions and decide if this intervention is the right decision for you and your family.
THREE MAIN FFT PHASES
1. Engagement and Motivation
We focus on engagement with the whole family. We start by learning about you and the core issues within your family. We aim to build your confidence in your ability to make changes and gain a better understanding of the family relationships.
2. Behavioural Change
We then help you to improve relationships within your family and create positive change by building on your family’s strengths. The therapist works on developing new skills and strategies for your family, which enable you to communicate differently with each other and address the challenges that brought you to therapy.
3. Generalisation
We help you to identify a support network to help you maintain the skills you have learnt. Support is also given to help you think about applying your new skills in different situations inside and outside of the home so that you can be confident about maintaining the progress you have made.
FFT works effectively with families to help overcome complex problems. The allocated therapist has weekly consultations with their supervisor and colleagues to help them think about you and your family. The support we provide is flexible, culturally sensitive and designed according to your family’s needs.
Progress updates & questionnaires
At the beginning of each intervention, all family members will be asked to complete some questionnaires. There is great importance in the information you provide on these questionnaires as it is used to better understand how everyone is feeling. It also allows the therapists to gain insight of the issues your family are struggling with. Questionnaires are used at the start and end of our intervention thus allowing progress reviews and ultimately determining how feelings, thoughts, behaviours have changed during FFT.
Record keeping & confidentiality
Family Psychology Mutual (FPM) will keep case records on a secure database and will share progress updates with the Borough who referred you to the intervention/service. We only share information with your consent, and we are very transparent about what and with whom information is shared. If, however, someone is at risk of serious harm, we are professionally required to share information to protect you and/or others.
At the end and sometimes during the review stage of the FFT programme, your therapist will write a report summarising the work you’ve undertaken as a family.
Resources
If you would like more information, you can access our Information for Caregivers Leaflet by clicking here.
