The Highly Recognized Chatham County FDTC

Senior Judge Patricia Stone serves as a full-time mediator and arbitrator at Miles Mediation and Arbitration Services in Savannah, Georgia, handling all civil and domestic issues. Prior to this, Patricia Stone served as judge of the Juvenile Court of Chatham County, Eastern Judicial Circuit, in Savannah, Georgia. During her tenure she established and presided over the Chatham County Family Dependency Treatment Court (FDTC). 

FDTC was launched in 2008 in order to help children to have permanent families. This is accomplished by dealing with the helplessness brought about by a guardian or parent engaged in substance abuse. The encompassing requirements of parents and children are addressed through a multi-disciplinary, court-based, and integrated undertaking endeavoring to provide judicial oversight, timely actions, harmonized treatment, and placements that are secure and permanent. 

Interventions and standards include thorough alcohol and drug treatment for targeted parents, attending recommended family, group, individual, and residential and/or marriage treatment, random alcohol and drug screenings to ensure the caregiver is drug and alcohol free, providing adequate and secure housing, completing family education programs and parenting classes, and demonstrating good parenting skills. 

NPC Research, a leading authority in accountability courts, rated Chatham County FDTC in 2012 as the Top Family Court in Georgia, citing its large number of research-based best practices lead by Patricia Stone. For three consecutive years, The Children and Family Futures and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention likewise selected Chatham County FDTC as a national Peer Learning Court, and one of the top 5 programs in the United States.