Families at risk of child welfare involvement often have complex issues, but standard supports for parents often rely on parenting skill classes that fail to address any multigenerational trauma the family has experienced. The Center for Child Protection has developed a parenting intervention, Family Relational Therapy, for families at a high risk for having children removed and placed into foster care. Family Relational Therapy incorporates the Nuerosequential Model of Therapeutics designed by Dr. Bruce Perry into its assessment of parents and tailors core curriculum content into the home visits therapists have with families.
The Texas Institute for Child & Family Wellbeing will evaluate Family Relational Therapy. TXICFW will work with The Center for Child Protection program staff to develop an evaluation plan, including a survey and interview guides. TXICFW will interview and collect survey data as outlined in the program evaluation.
This evaluation will help build evidence about potential programs to serve families at risk of child maltreatment. Given that traditional parenting classes have consistently been shown to be ineffective at decreasing risk of maltreatment, new methods are needed that rely on helping an entire family rather than just the parent or just the child.
Funding for this project was made possible by the Center for Child Protection through a grant by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.