Intensive Alternative Family Treatment (IAFT) is a specialized program that enables children with complex behavioral health needs receive family-based services through a therapeutic foster home with counseling and psychiatric support. Candidates for IAFT include children and teens who have severe behavioral difficulties, are at risk of hospitalization and/or have experienced multiple failed placements.
IAFT provides in-home, therapeutic foster care with a team approach that supports the child’s health and wellness. Participating kinship and foster parents are trained by a community-based IAFT provider to deliver individualized support tailored to meet specific needs. To ensure long-lasting recovery and permanence, IAFT treatment builds on a child’s natural support system and focuses on healing for the whole family.
Since 2010, the Endowment has awarded approximately $1.6 million to create, pilot and increase the number of foster parents in IAFT and to conduct a randomized controlled trial of the model. The trial began in 2023 and is still underway.
IAFT outcomes include:
- Youth successfully stepped down from very restrictive placements such as hospitals to IAFT foster homes.
- Youth demonstrated reduced anxiety, impulsivity, depression and other clinical improvements.
State Investment
In 2024, North Carolina leaders announced a two-year, $11 million investment in the model. The partnership between the North Carolina Division of Child and Family Well-Being and Rapid Resources for Families will support:
- Recruitment for additional community-based providers, significantly expanding North Carolina’s capacity for IAFT.
- Increasing training and resources for licensed foster parents who provide therapeutic treatment to improve capacity to care for children with more complex needs.
- Expanding access and availability for short-term IAFT crisis placements for children at immediate risk of inappropriate placement.
Increasing access to wrap services in the form of paid natural/professional support to aid youth stabilization and treatment parent retention.
