What are the eligibility criteria for FFT (Functional Family Therapy) for a youth?

To be eligible for FFT, three criteria must be met:

  • The youth must be Moderate or High risk to re-offend based on the Risk Assessment Scoring (see explanation below).
  • The youth must score at least 25% (or 8 out of a total of 34 maximum) of the dynamic risk points in the Family Domain section of the Risk Assessment (Domain 7B: Current Living Arrangements).
  • The youth must be under court jurisdiction long enough to complete the program (generally 10-12 sessions).

Risk Assessment Scoring:

Each question on the Juvenile Court Assessment (Risk Assessment) is assigned a score and is either a Protective factor or a Risk factor. A Protective factor is an event or circumstance in the youth's life that will reduce the likelihood of the youth committing a crime. A Risk factor is a circumstance or event in the youth's life that will increase the likelihood the youth will start or continue criminal activities.

Risk and Protective factors can be static or dynamic. Dynamic factors are circumstances or conditions in a youth's life that can potentially be changed, such as the youth's friends or school performance. Static factors are events in a youth's life that are historic and cannot be changed, such as a youth having been physically abused. Each item on the assessment is assigned a relative weight or score.


RN id: 1404