Last month, the clearinghouse that greenlights foster care prevention services approved several iterations of a mental intervention known as Dialectical Behavior Therapy, as well as a positive reinforcement approach to treating substance abuse.
The clearinghouse was established in relation to the Family First Prevention Services Act, passed in February of 2018. The law enables states to use the Title IV-E entitlement — previously reserved for foster care and adoption support — to fund services aimed at working with parents to help avoid the need for a family separation.
Those services must be evidence-based and apply to three areas: parenting, substance abuse treatment and mental health interventions. The clearinghouse also reviews kinship navigator programs, which serve as one-stop contact points for a variety of services and support for relatives caring for loved ones.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy, or DBT, works in tandem on acceptance of current situations while working toward improved health. The overarching goal therein is to regulate one’s emotions.
The clearinghouse tagged the general DBT model as Supported (the second-best rating for approved options) along with a variety of models tailored to working with people that suffer from overcontrol disorders. Two other variations, one for adolescents and one for binge eating and bulimia, received a rating of Promising.