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Archive: August 2021

Reassessing Youth Villages’ Intercept® Program with Recent Data Following their report from last year, Scott Huhr and Fred Wulczyn report findings from their reassessment on the impact of Intercept using Tennessee DCS administrative data to examine a more recent period.  Intercept is an intensive in-home services program that targets families with children at risk of placement.   Key features of the program include program intensity (meeting with families an average of three times weekly), low staff caseloads of 4 – 5 families, active 24/7 on-call structure, and structured weekly supervision and consultation from a licensed clinician who is an expert in the model.  The state of Tennessee, which offers Intercept in various counties around the state, commissioned the study.  As before, results indicate that Intercept does significantly reduce the odds of placement. You can download the Executive Summary, or read below. You can also download the full paper here. Executive Summary… Read more >

Despite long-standing criticisms and the preference for less restrictive placement settings, congregate care remains an important component of the care continuum used to meet the complex behavioral and mental health needs of children and youth who cannot live at home (Dinges et al., 2008; Blau et al., 2014; Butler & McPherson, 2007; Whittaker et al., 2016). High-quality, tailored congregate care placements with strong program models and highly qualified practitioners do serve as an important placement alternative for children and youth with complex clinical needs who require a short-term stay in a treatment facility (Blau et al., 2014; Daly et al., 2018; James, 2011). The 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), which alters federal policy concerning congregate care, preserves the appropriate use of congregate care through an emphasis on family-based placements and the development of qualified residential treatment programs (QRTPs). Against this backdrop, we aim to answer the following four… Read more >