Clark County Family Treatment Court

Vancouver, WA

The Clark County Family Treatment Court – Families Affected by Methamphetamine (FTCFAM) project is a proposed enhancement to the existing Family Treatment Court- Striding Towards Excellent Parenting (FTC-STEP). The project aims to treat children affected by methamphetamine and their parents using evidenced based neuro-psychlogical testing and subsequent individualized parent coaching services. The FTC-FAM Service enhancement is not a program capacity expansion.

The FTC-FAM program proposes to serve 35 unduplicated children and 20 unduplicated adults per year (140 children and 80 adults over the four year grant period). The proposed implemented COACHES –EM program is aimed to provide neuro-psychological testing to children of parents that have a methamphetamine dependence diagnosis. The results of the testing will then guide individualized evidenced based therapy and parental coaching for children and their parents. Meanwhile, parents will receive evidenced based parental group and home visitation support. Program participants will continue to be monitored in the FTC program, including receiving substance abuse or co-occurring treatment; UA testing; case management; peer and alumni support; all while attending regularly scheduled court review hearings, receiving incentives and sanctions tailored to address individuals behaviors. The FTC team is made up of a comprehensive group of community stakeholders, including DSHS – Children Administration, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), judicial member, coordinator, substance abuse treatment provider, Attorney General, Public Defender, and Parent Partner peer to peer mentor. Of the 21 current parents in the FTC-FAM program 16 are female and five are male. Twenty of the 21 are Caucasian and one is Hispanic. The average age of participant is 28. Program participants have an average of 1.7 children in dependency. Of the 21 participants, 20 have methamphetamine diagnosis and 12 are diagnosed with a co-occurring disorder.

Program evaluation will be completed by NPC Research, who has completed over 100 evaluations of Therapeutic Courts nationwide. The measurable outcomes that will be looked at is A) An increase in parental reunifications versus the traditional dependency system; B) A decrease in recidivism for parents in dependency; C) A decrease amount of time that children are in foster care placement compared to the traditional dependency process; and D) A positive cost / benefit analysis for the FTC-FAM program.