Treatment foster care is referred to variously as "therapeutic foster care", "foster family-based treatment", and "individualized residential treatment" to name just a few of the terms currently in use. As these names suggest, the model combines elements of psychology and social work, mental health and child welfare to serve the dual purposes of care and treatment. TFC is similar to facility-based residential treatment programs in that care-givers use clearly defined strategies to accomplish specific goals regarding the child's behavior and emotional adjustment. It is quite unlike a residential treatment center, however, since treatment activities happen in a home and family, not a facility. Treatment strategies are carried out by trained foster parents rather than institutional staff, even though professional social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists may be members of the treatment team.

     Treatment foster care is similar to standard foster care in that children are placed in licensed foster homes in the community. Most children in treatment foster care today are in the custody of a state or local department of social services. TFC is unlike standard foster care, however, in that treatment foster parents are expected not only to provide basic care and nurturance to children, but also to carry out specific treatment strategies to produce specific types of outcomes regarding the condition or problems they present at referral. Treatment foster parents are often referred to as the "primary treatment agents" in TFC because their work with children and with their families generally is seen as having as much or more impact than anyone else's on the team.

     Treatment foster parents receive more training, with more focus on specific skill development, than typically is offered to foster parents in the foster care system at large. Treatment foster parents' duties include those of the traditional foster parent, but extend further in that they must carry out and document goal-driven treatment strategies in the home. For this work, TFC parents receive a higher than average "difficulty of care" payment. They also receive more agency support than other foster parents and function as active members of a treatment team.