Kentucky
Association
for Marriage
and Family
Therapy

• Many studies show dramatic decreases of up to 80% in medical health use following appropriate mental health care, including family therapy.
• Early intervention has been estimated by the National Institute of Mental Health to cost society less than one-third the cost of late-stage crisis intervention
• Family therapy has been more successful than any other form of outpatient therapy in retaining adolescents with drug abuse problems in treatment and in reducing their drug abuse, thereby preventing costly hospitalization.
• The up to $25,000 it costs for one month of treatment for an adolescent in a private psychiatric hospital would pay for one year of outpatient treatment for 10 to 15 patients.

• One study found that rehospitalization rates for patients with schizophrenia in a six-month period were 30% for patients using drug treatment alone - but 0% when family therapy was part of the treatment plan.
• In another study, relapse rates were reduced for 77% of patients with manic- depressive or schizoaffective psychoses after receiving brief family therapy (6 sessions).
• A 50% higher success rate was reported for family therapy than for individual psychotherapy in preventing anorexia nervosa from reaching more critical stages in adolescents.
• In a 1998 study of psychotic patients, researchers found that psychotic relapses were nine times more likely to occur for patients receiving individual treatment than for those receiving a practical, problem-oriented, negotiation-based family therapy.

• One recent review of family therapy research examined its long-term effects and found that, in follow-up periods ranging from six weeks to three years, only 36% of patients in family therapy required further treatment, as compared with 58% of those undergoing alternative therapies. When other measures of recidivism are examined, such as hospitalization, family therapy also shows a higher success rate than alternative treatments.
• Studies have shown that marriage and family therapy has Been successful in treating alcoholism, anorexia and other eating disorders, psychosomatic asthma, overly aggressive children, juvenile delinquency, and other problems.

• The military's Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) has routinely reimbursed marriage and family therapists since 1966.
• Major private insurers and managed care programs use marriage and family therapists as key providers of mental health care.
• 52% of employee assistance programs employ marriage and family therapists as staff members or contracted providers.
• 62% of managed mental health care providers employ marriage and family therapists as staff members or contracted providers.

Home ~ About Us ~ Events ~ Directory ~ Training ~ Newsletters ~
Honors ~ Board Summaries ~ Supervisors ~ Licensing ~ Consumer ~ Links