Martinan - Fotalia.com
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Children and adolescents with severe difficulties are at high risk of multiple placements and of ending up in restrictive placements. These difficulties include antisocial behavior, behavioral problems, psychological disorders, and abuse or neglect. Restrictive placements and placement instability can result in serious long-term adverse consequences that impact on the social development of these children and adolescents, and on their educational potential and life chances.
Treatment Foster Care
Treatment Foster Care (TFC) is a foster-family based intervention that aims to provide young people with an individually tailored program designed to help bring about positive changes in their lives. The intervention aims to combine an out of home placement with specifically trained foster carers, supported by a multidisciplinary professional team who tailor the program for each child.
The term TFC encompasses several related programs. Common to them all is they are clearly described, tightly structured interventions designed to address the needs of the individual.
Review findings
The review findings suggest that treatment foster care can lead to a reduction in antisocial and criminal behavior, time spent in locked settings and episodes of running away. There is some evidence of a positive impact on school attendance and homework completion. However, more research is needed on this type of program.
Five studies with a total of 390 participants were included in the review. The studies are from the US.
Download full systematic review and user abstract.