Iberia Parish's F.I.R.S.T. Model was developed by the adolescent and family treatment team at Iberia Parish Outpatient Treatment Facility in response to the need for a family-therapy model which addressed the unique characteristics of a juvenile drug court program.
     Realizing that the family plays an essential role in the development of adolescents, Iberia Parish focuses on the family system rather than individual dynamics.  That is, most of the counselor's focus is on the family unit rather than the targeted juvenile.  As a result, this model is Family-Intensive.
     All families in the Family-Focused Juvenile Drug Court have chosen to enter the program in lieu of their son or daughter going to jail for some juvenile offense.  Some families enter the program eager to receive assistance; others view the program as an inconvenience and an invasion of their privacy.  These families view  drug court as the lesser of two evils.  With this in mind, it is no wonder that there exists a great deal of resistance and hostility from not only the adolescents, but from their parents, who often plea innocence and blame their children for having to participate in the program.  This in turn places even more pressure on an already overwhelmed adolescent manifesting itself in even more negative behaviors.
     This cycle of blame and resentment has played a large part in the circumstances that present themselves when the family has reached this point.  For this reason, counselors in this model focus on process rather than content dynamics; that is, how the family communicates rather than what they are communicating.  This is the key tool in getting families to become healthier in their interactions with each other and with others outside their family system.  Structured family therapy is utilized as it emphasizes organizational issues.  Short term, interpersonal goals designed to reduce negatives in the family system are established with full input from all family members.  Typical goals include correcting dysfunctional roles by putting parents in charge of their children and identifying subsystems that exist within the family.  Other goals attempt to alter the faulty family structure by modifying the way each member relates to the other.  These goals are kept simple and are stated in plain language that even the youngest family member can understand.  Goals focus on the present and use direct, indirect and paradoxical directives.  At no time is a goal established that may set the family up for failure.
     No model of family therapy can encompass all the problems a family will face as it grows and changes.  This model is designed to provide each family with a repertoire of tools and coping skills it can use to best handle a given situation.  There will be set-backs, arguments, parent-child tug-of-wars, etc.  These are inevitable and exist in even the healthiest of households.  This model focuses on altering the family only as much as needed to allow it to maintain itself without the use of the presenting problem.  In this sense, the model is labeled Realistically Structured Therapy.