For a teen returning home, helping the teen and the entire family make positive transitions proves to be the most effective way to prevent relapse and advance the progress made in treatment for the long-term. For a family currently experiencing crisis involving a child or teen, transition helps them navigate through challenging times and develop long-term constructive solutions for the individual and the entire family.

At Homeward Bound we pioneered Family Transition Management™ (FTM™) to help teens, children, and families work through transitional periods in real-world situations. FTM™ brings the most advanced, proven methods of training, support, and management into the home, school, peer groups, and other life circles where behavior is put to the test. FTM™ is the next logical step - based on evidence - for achieving lasting results. FTM™ is a revolutionary approach for addressing family problems in the most important place of all - the home.

More on Teens Returning Home or Families In Crisis

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The alarming rates of recidivism challenge us as professionals to develop a better aftercare solution. To learn more CLICK HERE

For parents, waiting for the return of their teen is often filled with anxiety as well as excitement. Parents genuinely long for a positive reunion and a better life for their child. However, most parents, in some form or another, are apprehensive about the return of their child; they fear the return of conflict, or they dread the return of self-destructive behaviors. By sending their child to a wilderness or residential program they demonstrated their commitment to solving problems, but upon the return of their child, many parents doubt the sustainability of the progress.

This doubt and subsequent anxiety stems from a few solvable problems: 1) there is a lack of understanding about what truly drives their own child’s behavior; 2) they are suppressing honest concerns about their own ability to parent, or 3) there is an internal admission that there is a fundamental lack of preparation for the teen’s return. These are hard issues to face for any parent because it drives at the heart of parental insecurity. These feelings set off our natural, internal alarm telling us there is something very wrong.

For too long, parents have sent their teens away in a true show of affection, sacrifice, money, and time; all the while, in the home, the environments that largely determine the teen’s behavior remain the same. Often teens make exceptional progress in a treatment program only to return to the same family dynamics, old routines, a similar peer group, as well as other environmental stress. Resisting this kind of pressure is too much to ask any adolescent. It’s hard enough for mature adults to make these types of changes let alone for struggling teens to make positive changes in all areas of their daily lives. Without proper support it’s only a matter of time before old patterns of behavior find their way back into everyday life.

Making broad environmental or dynamic changes in the family, school, peer groups, and other systems of influence - changes that provide the foundation for lasting, healthy behavior - takes a well-coordinated group effort that follows proven methods. Family Transition Management™ from Homeward Bound does exactly that. FTM™ organizes parents and teens at a time when we know dramatic change is taking place – the return. Applied to an intensive aftercare program, FTM™ helps parents regain control, it helps teens transition progress, and it helps families develop environments that promote healthy behavior for years to come. (TOP)

Serious behavioral problems involving a child or teen can strike at any age of development.  Today, more parents than would care to admit, are embarrassed or genuinely afraid of what their child or teen may do next.  At some level, parents know when a problem behavior can no longer be excused as growing pains or “normal”.  Parents have enough life experience to know when a situation is serious; when a clearly visible problem can have a lasting and terrible result. 

For younger kids, low social skills, bullying, inappropriate gender relationships, stealing, fire starting, anger, hanging out with older kids, and many other problems do not disappear at puberty.  Unchecked, this can be the onset of serious antisocial behavior.  Parents with the best intentions more often than not fail to intervene early­ - before a problem behavior becomes serious - or they simply mishandle normal transitional periods and inadvertently facilitate antisocial behavior.

For adolescent teens, more serious problems can manifest from failing grades, acting out sexually, defiance, lack of respect, experimenting with drugs and alcohol, escalating opposition at home or with authority figures, fights, emotionally withdrawing at school or extreme withdrawal at home, and depression.  These are all solvable problems, but all too often these problems are left to their own devices and many take a fateful turn for the worse.  Consequently, manageable problems regularly lead to unnecessary pain and family suffering.  In many cases, it isn't until a parent suddenly feels the shock from threats or acts of running away, threats or acts of violence, threats of suicide, extreme disrespect, or even truancy, that he or she realizes their family needs immediate, professional help.

Whether the child is 8 years-old or 18 years-old, parents carry a tremendous weight on their shoulders; they feel responsible for their child's actions.  Parents confronting problem behaviors need assistance developing age appropriate boundaries, reestablishing appropriate disciplinary efforts, and developing strategies for dealing with a multitude of problems.  Family Transition Management™ from Homeward Bound provides a means to recapture control and establish pro-social growth.  FTM™ brings a proven, creative process to families facing a multitude of crises. 

Applying the process of FTM™ to the established practice of Family Intervention and Life Education gives families the best opportunity to solve their immediate problems and learn skills to conquer future problems. FTM™ empowers families to maintain a loving relationship, a healthy school or work environment, and develop and keep positive peer groups not just for the immediate future, but for life. (TOP)