Family Dependency Treatment Court Success Saves Money and Families

04/26/2012

USF researcher Dr. Kathleen Moore and others, have been providing performance assessment, data collection, and evaluation for the Family Dependency Treatment Court (FDTC). Rachel Villalobos’s improvements highlights one of the many FDTC accomplishments. Rachel was on the brink of losing her children, but with the help she received from the Hillsborough FDTC program, she was able reunite with her three year old daughter.

“Dr. Moore recently conducted a study of parents in Hillsborough County's FDTC program, comparing them to similarly troubled parents in Pinellas County, which doesn't have the program. It took longer for parents to be reunited with their children in Hillsborough — about 495 days to Pinellas' 395 — but other outcomes were much better. Keeping the children in foster care until parents have time to complete a drug program is more beneficial to families and less expensive for the state in the long run.”

Click here to read the rest of the TBO.com article to find out more about Rachel’s story.