NCJ Number
171713
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1996) Pages: 205-216
Date Published
1996
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The Family Empowerment Intervention (FEI), a family systems intervention delivered in the home by well-trained nontherapists to help families of juvenile offenders in Tampa, Florida, is described.
Abstract
The goal of the FEI is to meet with the family system to empower all family members to adopt functional patterns of relatedness. The FEI targets high-risk young people entering the juvenile justice system and their families. As the FEI is an intensive family systems intervention delivered in the home, field consultants meet with families a minimum of 3 times weekly for about 10 weeks. Each family meeting lasts 1 hour, and all household members are expected to be present. The FEI has several distinctive features: (1) it is delivered by nontherapists, and the use of paraprofessionals is cost-effective; (2) after the intensive home-based intervention period, monthly telephone contact with parents continues to monitor family functioning and stress levels; and (3) the intervention includes a backup service referral system to facilitate family linkage to agencies and services. Field consultants are carefully chosen to ensure they have the requisite presence and skills to perform the multiple roles that are essential to successfully implementing the FEI. Field consultant training takes 1 month, and training focuses on how to identify and respond to family crises, particularly in the areas of child abuse, homicidal and suicidal threats, drug or alcohol crises, and severe psychological conditions. The effectiveness of the FEI is being evaluated in a randomized trial of 720 families of juvenile offenders in Tampa, Florida. 30 references