Enhancing and Adapting Treatment Foster Care: Lessons Learned in Trying to Change Practice

Evidence-based practices to improve outcomes for children with severe behavioral and emotional problems have received a great deal of attention in children's mental health. Therapeutic foster care (TFC), a residential intervention for youth with emotional or behavioral problems, is one of the few community-based programs that is considered to be evidence-based. However, as for most treatment approaches, the vast majority of existing programs do not deliver the evidence-based version. In an attempt to fill this gap and improve practice across a wide range of TFC agencies, we developed an enhanced model of TFC based on input from both practice and research. It includes elements associated with improved outcomes for youth in "usual care" TFC agencies as well as key elements from Chamberlain's evidence-based model. The current manuscript describes this "hybrid" intervention--Together Facing the Challenge--and discusses key issues in implementation. We describe the sample and settings, highlight key implementation strategies, and provide "lessons learned" to help guide others who may wish to change practice in existing agencies.