Overview of the innovative Family Treatment Drug Court model in Kentucky

Abstract

Family Treatment Drug Courts (FTDCs) have been implemented to assist families involved with the child welfare system due to substance use. This article describes an enhanced version of a Family Treatment Drug Court intervention which builds on the traditional FTDC model but includes adaptations that add theoretically driven components to the basic FTDC model that aim to strengthen not only permanency outcomes but also address child well-being including several precursors to child well-being: parent well-being and family well-being so that the additional child welfare outcome of child well-being can be met. The enhanced FTDC model described in this paper offers three phases of treatment but also utilizes data gathered for evaluation purposes as continuous quality improvement information to inform providers regarding participant engagement so that targeted re-engagement efforts can occur to reduce dropouts. Thus, this paper also describes the measures utilized in the comprehensive evaluation. Data include 33 standardized scales from multiple sources, including clients, therapists/treatment providers, court personnel, and child welfare workers, at multiple points ranging from weekly to quarterly. Implications are discussed regarding how this enhanced FTDC model and use of evaluation/CQI data impact client engagement and multiple outcomes.