Our Programs

 
 

Multisystemic Therapy (MST)

MST Targets

Youth with chronic, violent, or substance abusing male and female juvenile offenders at risk of out-of-home placement, thus a “typical” MST youth:

  • is 12-17 years old

  • Truancy/ suspensions and/ or explosions

  • Has multiple arrests/ is a chronic offender -Is deeply involved with delinquent peers

  • Is experiencing problems at school or doesn’t attend at all

  • Abuses substance (marijuana, alcohol, cocaine)

  • Running away

Program characteristics

MST delivers intensive home-based services via therapists fully trained in MST and supported through weekly supervision with a MST supervisor and expert. Therapists carry a small (but demanding) caseload and treatment length ranges from 3 to 5 months.

Within the MST model, therapists:

  • Conduct comprehensive functional assessments of youth in the context of their families, peer groups, school, and neighborhood

  • Seek to understand the “fit” between the youth’s problems and the factors which contribute to them

  • Empower parents to address needs of the youth (i.e. structure, support) more effectively. Focus on helping parents build supportive social networks in their community

  • Emphasize long-term change that families can maintain after their involvement in MST ends

  • MST Therapists are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week for crisis situations

What makes MST work?

Research studies of youth who break the law repeatedly and/ or abuse illegal substances provide significant evidence of the correlation between juvenile offending and difficulties in the following area:

  • Family relations

  • School performance

  • Peer relations

  • Neighborhood and community relations

MST interventions focus on key aspects of these areas in each youth’s life. All interventions are designed in full collaboration with family members and key figures in each of the child’s life-parents or legal guardians’, school faculty and staff, etc.

what mst can do for you (parents, guardians, supports) and your child?

We will help you focus on your family’s strengths to develop solutions:

  • Goals are established by your family

  • The goals will promote positive, responsible behavior within your family

  • You will learn how to identify resources and skills that will help you to effectively monitor and discipline your child

MST will help your child make positive improvements often resulting in:

  • Improved school performance

  • Relationships with supportive peer groups

  • Participation in positive recreational activities

We will help you develop a support network by:

  • Involving teachers, school administrators, and community groups in your child’s treatment

  • Coordinate with juvenile justice and child welfare systems, if needed and attend court

 

Mental health rehabilitation (MHR)

The MHR program is designed to help children while engaging family members to work on the family system as a whole. The goal is to create a more balanced functional system that enhances the family’s values and beliefs.

The MHR program focuses on maximizing strengths, reducing behavior problems, changing behavior, promoting problem resolution, improving interpersonal skills, assisting in development of interest areas and natural supports, exploring and clarifying values, and facilitating interpersonal growth and change.