Poster 64 - Adult Therapeutic Foster Care: Expanding Community-based Options for Adults Living With Serious Mental Illness
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
12:30 PM - 1:00 PM MDT
Location: Screen 19, Exhibit Hall Poster Pavilion
Adult Therapeutic Foster Care (ATFC) offers a cost-effective, community-based alternative to congregate care for adults living with serious mental illness. This session will explore how pairing trained foster families with adults in need of support leads to improved outcomes, greater stability, and stronger connections to community. Attendees will learn practical strategies for program development, recruitment, and oversight, and leave with actionable steps to bring this innovative model to their own systems of care.
Learning Objectives:
Describe the Adult Therapeutic Foster Care (ATFC) model and its effectiveness in supporting adults with serious mental illness as a cost-effective alternative to congregate care.
Identify key strategies for recruiting, training, and retaining therapeutic foster families while ensuring trauma-informed, clinically supported care.
Apply lessons learned and practical tools to assess readiness for ATFC implementation and explore opportunities to replicate the model within their own systems of care.
