The Feasibility of Providing Remote Functional Family Therapy with Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Method Study

Abstract

Background Due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, mental health care has largely transferred its services to online platforms, using videoconferencing (VC) or teletherapy. Within the field of family therapy, however, there is little evidence on the feasibility of using VC, especially when working with whole families at the edge of care. Objective This study investigated the feasibility of remote Functional Family Therapy (FFT), using a mixed-method approach. Method Study 1 consisted of semi-structured interviews with 23 FFT professionals (18 female) about their experience of providing remote FFT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study 2 included monitoring data of 209 FFT clients (46% female, Mage = 14.00) who participated in FFT during the pandemic. We compared families who received mainly in-person, mainly remote or a mix of remote and in-person on client-reported alliance, drop-out, therapist-rated outcomes, and treatment intensity using MANCOVA’s and chi-square tests. Results In Study 1 two themes emerged around experienced challenges, namely ‘Feeling in control’ and ‘Engagement and alliance’. Two other themes emerged around adaptations, namely ‘Being more on top’ and ‘Connecting in different ways’. In Study 2, we found that the therapeutic alliance was not related to using VC. Also, families had less between-session contact during the Engagement and Motivation Phase when receiving mainly VC, but had more sessions and longer therapy when receiving a mix of in-person and remote therapy. Conclusions The current study suggests that providing systemic family teletherapy to families on the edge of care is feasible. Further development of systemic family teletherapy is warranted.

A Video-Delivered Family Therapeutic Intervention for Perinatal Women With Clinically Significant Depressive Symptoms and Family Conflict: Indicators of Feasibility and Acceptability

“…However, research is limited on the feasibility of using VCT to deliver family therapeutic interventions to this population [11][12][13]. While the use of VCT is not new to the field of family therapy, most studies have examined the feasibility and effectiveness of interventions that primarily target parenting skills for youth with specific mental health problems (eg, [14][15][16][17][18]).…”

“…Therapists who lack specific guidance on delivering models using VCT may experience problems with delivering the model as intended. For example, low bandwidth can lead to frustration in therapists and families due to having to repeat themselves, as well as omission of some session content due to reduced audio quality [ 18 ]. Thus, model developers that aim to use VCT for session delivery need to include specific steps for therapists to manage technological challenges that could interfere with session quality.…”