New MDFT Research Project

The Connecticut Department of Children and Families (CT DCF) received a Regional Partnership Grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau to increase well-being, improve permanency, and enhance the safety of children who are in, or at risk for,  out-of-home placement as a result of parental substance misuse. CT DCF has partnered with MDFT International and Chestnut Health Systems to conduct a randomized clinical trial with over 200 families to test the effectiveness of a new therapeutic approach, Multidimensional Family Therapy & Recovery (MDFTR) to achieve the long-term goal of preventing or reducing child maltreatment and out-of-home placement. MDFTR combines two powerful evidence-based interventions, Multidimensional Family Therapy and Multidimensional Family Recovery. This integrative family-based program treats parental substance misuse and co-occurring mental health disorders and aims to improve parenting practices and family functioning. The new MDFRT trial targets adult parents (age 18 and older) with a child under age 6 who is at risk for or in an out-of-home placement due to parental substance misuse. MDFTR represents one of the first attempts to bridge family therapy research to adult substance use disorder treatment and study the efficacy with families who are involved/at-risk for involvement with child welfare due to parental substance use and co-occurring mental health problems.

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