More News

State and county officials gathered in Landover on Friday to celebrate a form of therapy designed to keep county youths out of the juvenile justice system and to keep those in the system from slipping even further from reach.

The Prince George's Functional Family Therapy Kick-Off was held at Landover's Progressive Life Center and funded by the county's Department of Family Services Administration for Children, Youth and Families and the state's Department of Juvenile Services.

Functional family therapy targets youths ages 11 through 18 who are at risk for being given an out-of-home placement, those who are already in out-of-home placement, such as a foster or group home, or those currently in a detention center waiting for out-of-home placement. The therapy involves sending a counselor to the youths' homes for four to five months for 12 to 15 sessions to study the family, identify any problems with communication or problem-solving skills and come up with solutions that cut down on problems such as truancy and missed curfews. The program began in April and serves 39 families referred by the county's Department of Juvenile Services.

The center, a nonprofit organization and child placement agency, is the first location in Prince George's County to run the program. Judy DuBose, administrator for the county's Department of Children, Youth and Families, said there are no plans now to expand the program to other locations, and the department will wait until the program hits the one-year mark to consider an expansion. DuBose said the Local Management Board, which she directs, is responsible for implementing the program. The board is also known as The Commission for Children, Youth and Families.

"We intend to make it work," DuBose said. "I'm happy we're forging private and public partnerships. Our children are really needy and we expect to do very well."

Lewis Smith, director of the Progressive Life Center's Maryland and Delaware operations, and Charles White, the county's Functional Family Therapy program director, presented "Client Outcome Measure" evaluations from Baltimore city functional family therapy data as of June asking 89 families if parenting skills improved.

Out of 89 families, 47 percent of parents said parenting skills improved "a lot," 10 percent said "very" and 3 percent said "little," while 34 percent of adolescents said parenting skills improved "a lot" and 17 percent said "very," while 14 percent said "little." Statistics are not available yet for Prince George's County, because the program began in April.

White emphasized that the center's job is not to immediately "pluck" a child out of the home after a first look at the home environment. White said a family, for example, in which a child and parent yell at each other, but a parent continues the conversation after the child shuts down, would not be immediately deemed "distant," because the parent is still talking with the child and trying to communicate. Smith said booster sessions are available upon request for families seeking additional counseling following initial therapy.

Arleen Rogan, director of behavioral health services for the state Department of Juvenile Services, said counseling the entire family and keeping the youths in their community where they are comfortable is more beneficial than taking them out of the home, only for him or her to return to an environment where nothing has changed. Rogan stressed the importance of having county ties in implementing the program.

"It's very important to the secretary that we have local partners," Rogan said. "We think that people in the community know better of what the people need than we do."

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.