Interventions for children at risk of developing antisocial personality disorder

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The main programmes featured in this concise review, like The Incredible Years, Triple P, the Nurse-Family Partnership Programme, Multi-systemic therapy and Functional Family Therapy, rightly attract interest from parenting providers and agencies keen to develop a contemporary practice model for reducing antisocial behaviour, writes Anthony Douglas.
The emphasis on selecting the right programme at the right time for a particular set of problems is welcome as a one-size-fits-all approach is doomed. While all programmes have been positively evaluated in some part of the globe, the fragile understanding of how to relate a particular programme to a particular set of local problems in the UK means that targeting needs greater precision. This study can help strategists and operational managers alike.
Success factors like high programme fidelity (delivering a programme according to a core curriculum), a strong value-base for partnership working with families, and a tiered approach, are more likely than not to be effective whatever model is used.
This study could usefully have included some cross-referencing to other programmes which may have a preventive part to play, especially child and adolescent mental health services. The sheer unaffordability of some specialist programmes could also have received more coverage, while showing how, despite that, some can still be good value for money.
The strongest message from this study is that assessment without treatment is unlikely to change very much. The social care equivalent of "education, education, education" is "treatment, treatment, treatment".
Anthony Douglas is chief executive of Cafcass and chair of BAAF