Trauma Focus Model for Reducing Long-Term Foster Care
Condition: Foster Care
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The Trauma Focus Model for Reducing Long-Term Foster Care Project with the Illinois
      Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is implementing a trauma-focused
      intervention, Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET) to increase
      permanency rates for a target population of children identified as being most at risk of
      long-term foster care.
    

Detailed description: 
      The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is one of six recipients of
      the Permanency Innovations Initiative Grant. These funds support the statewide implementation
      of Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET) in Illinois. TARGET is
      a manualized, psycho-educational intervention designed to address complex trauma and
      difficulties with emotional regulation and relational engagement that occur across a wide
      range of trauma-related difficulties, including trauma-related and behavioral symptoms. The
      aim of this intervention is to address the key barriers to permanence for the target
      population. This population includes youth ages 11-16 who are placed in traditional,
      relative, and specialized foster homes throughout the state of Illinois, have been in foster
      care for at least 2 years, and are experiencing mental health challenges and/or at least one
      placement change. The three key barriers to permanency are: (1) children's need to improve
      emotional regulation and reduce symptom severity, particularly disruptive behaviors; (2)
      biological parents' skills in regulating their emotions so they are better able to complete
      services and address the underlying issues related to their involvement in the child welfare
      system; (3) foster parents and other placement resources skills in understanding and
      addressing the needs and disruptive behaviors of the children in their care with trauma
      histories.

      The local evaluation will examine the effectiveness of the TARGET program in increasing
      permanency rates for foster youth in the target population. The main hypothesis to be tested
      is that addressing unstable child affect & behavior secondary to trauma using an intervention
      that improves both youth modulation skills as well as foster parent capacity to respond
      appropriately to youth will stabilize placements and improve youth ability to engage with
      potential permanency resources, thus facilitating progress toward permanence. The evaluation
      involves randomly assigning eligible foster youth to receive TARGET services or receive
      services as usual. The evaluators collect proximal and distal outcomes from multiple
      administrative data sources. Additionally, the evaluation includes the collection of key
      proximal outcomes through the use of interviews with foster youth, their foster parents and
      biological parents deemed eligible for participation in the project.
    

Intervention name(s): Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET)
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): The intervention is called the Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET). TARGET is a manualized, psycho-educational intervention delivered in 10 - 12 sessions. TARGET is designed to address complex trauma and difficulties with emotional regulation and relational engagement that occur across a wide range of trauma-related difficulties, including trauma-related and behavioral symptoms. The full TARGET model consists of learning 7 essential core skills. These skills are called the FREEDOM steps: Focus, Recognize triggers, Emotion self-check, Evaluate thoughts, Define goals, Options, and Make a contribution.
Other intervention name(s): TARGET
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Primary purpose: Other
Keywords: Long term foster care; child abuse and neglect; trauma