The University of Colorado at Boulder and the Boulder County District Attorney聮s Office have joined forces to offer assessment and family therapy for juvenile offenders and their families.
Prosocial Family Therapy is being provided by the psychology department's Center for the Prevention of Adverse Life Outcomes, of which Joel Silverman is the clinical director.
This therapy is part of an ongoing research project under the supervision of Elaine Blechman, professor of psychology at CU-Boulder.
Juvenile offenders are first given intake assessments which examine behavioral problems, depression, drug and alcohol use, school problems and delinquent acts.
Families are then randomly assigned to Prosocial Family Therapy, which takes place in the Raimy clinic on the CU campus, or to traditional family therapy offered by the Counseling Center in east Boulder. Both are available at low cost to qualifying families.
Silverman said that under Prosocial Family Therapy all family members attend 12 weekly sessions where they work together to construct a plan designed to prevent antisocial problems and drug and alcohol use. The scheme allows for feedback from police and schools to help reduce harmful behavior.
"Families also learn problem-solving strategies, behavior management and communication skills," Silverman said. "The focus is looking at harm reduction to the community.
"We聮re getting the whole family involved. One of the things Littleton seemed to show was that more problems can arise when families are not involved with their children."
Families are reassessed at the end of the treatment. They are then contacted monthly for the next six months and again after one year and two years to see what progress has been made.
Silverman said it was sometimes hard to track families for two years but there have been encouraging results from the 25 to 30 families who have gone through the program so far.
"This collaborative work continues to be a source of immeasurable benefits to juvenile offenders, their families and the Boulder County community," he said.
Right now there are only three families in the program and researchers would like to see more.
"If you are the parent of a juvenile who has had contact with the justice system in the past year and are looking for new ways to help your child stay out of trouble, please contact me," Silverman said.
For information call Silverman at 303-492-1388.