Functional family therapy: perceptions and experiences of key stakeholders in Glasgow

In 2013 Glasgow City Council’s Social Work Department established a new team to deliver Functional Family Therapy (FFT) to support young people aged 11 and 18 years who had been identified as having, or at risk of developing, serious behavioural problems, including violence, offending,
delinquency, truancy and substance misuse. Originally developed in the USA in the 1960s, FFT is an evidence-based intervention listed on the Blueprint registry of positive interventions to support
health and well-being. It is a short-term intervention that is underpinned by an assumption that behavioural problems exhibited by young people are rooted in dysfunctional family relations and that problem behaviours may be sustained and reinforced by poor communication within the family. Trained professionals work with referred young people and their families to identify family behaviours that may be promoting the young person’s problem behaviours. They then work with the family to
build better methods of communication and, amongst other things, establish appropriate roles and responsibilities.