Putting families first: An evaluation of Functional Family Therapy in an Irish context

Current evidence suggests that up to 20% of Irish adolescents have significant behavioural problems, a figure consistent with results of epidemiological studies of youth mental health problems in other countries.Functional Family Therapy (FFT) has consistently been identified in authoritative international reviews as a family-therapy programme for treating adolescents at risk for juvenile delinquency with a particularly strong evidence-base including many controlled trials, and a well developed training and monitoring system for implementing FFT in new community-based sites.Between 2010 and 2014, a research programme to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of FFT at Archways Families First was conducted by a research team at University College Dublin, in collaboration with Indiana University, and the team of FFT therapists at Archways Families First. The results of this programme, described in this summary report, provide strong support for the effectiveness of FFT as practiced at Archways Families First in reducing behaviour problems and the risk of juvenile delinquency.