An expert panel is recommending that a specialized form of foster care be an option for teens who are particularly likely to engage in violent behavior.

The approach, known as therapeutic foster care, is designed for children and teens with a history of problem behavior, delinquency or emotional problems and cannot live at home. It can in some cases serve as an alternative to group homes, hospitalization or jail.

So far, three studies of therapeutic foster care have found that teenagers who go through such programs are substantially less likely to go to jail or be arrested for violent crimes.

Based on this evidence, the Task Force on Community Preventive Services - an independent panel appointed by the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - is recommending that therapeutic foster care be looked at as a way to curb teen violence.

As for younger children, however, the task force found too little research on whether specialized foster care reduces violent behavior.

The panel’s findings are reported in the CDC’s Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report.

One of the authors of the report, Dr. Akiva Liberman, a researcher with the National Institute of Justice in Washington, D.C., explained that the task force is looking into a number of ways to potentially reduce youth violence - and based on the evidence, therapeutic foster care appears “worthy of consideration.”

Such programs temporarily place children with families who have been trained to help them learn how to manage their emotions, control their anger and have good relationships with others. Depending on the program, children may be separated from their normal peer group and closely supervised at school and elsewhere, or they and their biological families may receive psychological therapy.

Evidence suggests that therapeutic foster care is effective largely because it gives kids a strong relationship with an adult while keeping them away from peers who get them into trouble.

Among the studies the task force reviewed, one showed that compared with teens in residential group care, those in therapeutic foster care were 57 percent less likely to end up in jail in the year after the program.

Another study showed that boys who went through specialized foster care were 75 percent less likely to be arrested for a violent crime in the year after the program compared with the year before. For girls, that figure was 69 percent.

Liberman also pointed to the findings on cost-effectiveness; while therapeutic foster care is not cheap, he told Reuters Health, it may save money in the end. One study found that for every dollar spent on therapeutic foster care, $14 in justice system costs were saved.

According to the report, therapeutic foster care could help a “substantial” number of children and teens. In 1999, the authors note, more than 104,000 juveniles were placed in residential facilities due to delinquency, many of whom might be eligible for therapeutic foster care.

SOURCE: Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report, July 2, 2004.