IAFT stands for Intensive Alternative Family Treatment. This is a foster care service for children who need extra attention and special services to address specific behavioral or mental health needs. IAFT foster parents must be licensed as therapeutic foster parents and complete additional IAFT training before fostering.
The IAFT® program at-a-glance
The IAFT® program was developed in response to the need to provide a family-based
environment for children and families needing extra assistance from North Carolina communities. Critically, we’ve found that successful outcomes are more likely when children are treated in a family home setting.
Due to the nature of the program, IAFT® training is limited to foster parents who want to reunite families or provide the link for a permanent situation for children in a uniquely difficult set of circumstances.
What does participating in IAFT® look like?
We utilize a thorough screening process to help determine the best fit for an IAFT® trained parent and a prospective family. The screening process focuses on a treatment parent's ability to maintain treatment focus, manage behaviors, and create change for improved futures for children and their families.
We carefully match the needs of a child with the skills of the available IAFT® treatment parents to maximize success and reduce disruption.
The program maintains only one child in the home and the average stay of a child in this program is nine months. This is paired with increased agency presence, psychiatric help and birth family interaction over what would be typical in traditional therapeutic foster care.
To further the success of the program and client outcomes, IAFT® treatment parents participate in reporting and input, during and even post-treatment.
What are the differences between IAFT® and traditional therapeutic foster care?
- Only one child in the home
- Average stay of nine months
- Daily communication with the Resource Coordinator/Team Leader from Omni Visions
- Weekly team meetings with IAFT® treatment parents' involvement to ensure progress and maintain open communication with professional staff
- Psychiatric over-site with each placement
- Weekly therapy
- Weekly engagement with biological family or supports of permanence in the child's plan of care
- Foster parents offered two nights of respite per month IAFT treatment parents can expect 24/7 on-call support and ongoing, in-home training.
Requirements of becoming an IAFT foster parent
As the primary agent of change, therapeutic foster care parents must meet the following requirements to be considered for IAFT® placement
- Be licensed as a therapeutic foster parent in your state
- Complete an additional RRFF/IAFT® training course.
- Yearly continued training as needed