Long-time MST therapist has suggestions for communities looking for juvenile offender services

When I became an MST therapist more than 16-and-a-half years ago, I met with a county juvenile probation officer to discuss referrals being made to our program. She was a lovely person with a passion for the work she was doing in the juvenile-justice field. As a probation officer, she was responsible for 40 to 50 cases and knew every one of those young people and their families personally. She believed in the Multisystemic Therapy mission of keeping youth at home, in school and out of trouble with the law as keys to their success.

But how to do that successfully for her was still a question to be answered.

What does it take to be an award-winning MST therapist?

It takes a special type of person to be an MST therapist. Requirements? Supreme empathy. Intuitiveness. The sleuthing power of Sherlock Holmes to uncover the mysteries of why a youth is acting out. Diplomatic skills to get an entire family—and even the extended community—on board with the program.

Using MST to right the ship, Julie Revaz tells the story

What can help reduce the overall number of intakes to the juvenile justice system, support the closing of a detention center, reduce the number of young people in residential settings and help a state improve the overall quality of life for adolescents and their families? 

Julie Revaz, MSW, a manager in Connecticut’s Judicial Branch's Court Support Services Division (JC CSSD), is a key champion of evidence-based practices, and provides the answer to that question and so much more.

Multisystemic Therapy takes more than a Coke and a smile

I remember when I was an MST supervisor, one of my therapists came into my office and said that he had finally figured it out—“Engagement in MST isn’t a Coke and a smile!” It wasn’t about having families invite him into their homes, greeting him with a smile on their faces, offering him a seat at their kitchen table and a Coke to drink. Engagement was something much more. After working in MST for several months, he had really started to understand that engagement and alignment meant a whole lot more and was critical to long-lasting success.

Parents hold the key to turning their children around, MST helps unlock the door

Imagine this. You hear that two teenagers in your neighborhood are caught shoplifting. They are accused of stealing more than $1,000 worth of merchandise from a nearby department store. This isn’t their first offense, either. You heard they were caught breaking and entering cars and a neighbor’s home. You think they are even involved with drugs. Given this new arrest, they are facing the threat of being locked up for their crimes. Your first thought is “their parents are to blame. They should have taught their kids better.”

Texas Juvenile Crime Justice Reform Reduces Crime & Saves Money

In 2007, after abuses were reported in Texas juvenile facilities, the legislature put together a reform package. Part of its aim was to keep youthful offenders close to home in the hopes of reducing the size of the correctional system, the second largest in the United States. Money that would have been spent putting kids behind bars, building new jails and prisons, and all the ancillary costs of incarceration were to be funneled into community supervision.

Over the course of the years since the reforms began, juvenile incarcerations plunged from 4,305 to 1,481, a 66-percent drop. At the same time, arrests fell by 33 percent from 136,206 in 2007 to 91,873 in 2012. So, it would not appear that locking up fewer adolescents was a threat to public safety.

By closing eight juvenile correctional facilities, the state shaved its appropriations from $486 million to $290 million from 2006-2007 to 2014-2015. The savings went to local probation departments that find community supervision, services, and treatment for the offenders.

What we already know from years of research is effective interventions for young people in the juvenile justice system must address risk factors across all aspects of the adolescent’s life. To succeed, the intervention has to take into account what puts the youth at risk for current and future anti-social behaviors, whether it has to do with the individual, family, peer, school, or community. Not to be overlooked are such considerations as to whether there are warm, supportive relationships with caring adults and positive peer associations, which help steer juveniles away from behaviors that put them at risk for criminal activity.

Highlights of the 2014 MST European Conference are in. Over 450 participants attended the two-day event hosted at the beautiful Central Hall Westminster, London, England.  MST Therapists, Supervisors, Program Managers, Researchers, Policy Makers, and Experts gathered from across Europe to celebrate the implementation of the MST model.  Keynote speakers included: Professor Peter Fonagy (Chief Investigator, START Research Trial, University College, London) Edward Timpson MP (Minister for Children, Department of Education, UK), and Professor Sonja Schoenwald (Professor Family Services Research Center, Charleston, South Carolina).

One and a half million young people are arrested each year in the United States, 89 percent of those are for non-violent crimes.  Many of these young people arrested, even those non-violent offenders, receive custodial or residential sentences.  In other words, they are taken away from their families, schools, friends, and community and placed in a locked facility.

Think about it, in dollars and cents.  Each year, the United States spends $10,500 per child on education. We spend on average, eight times that amount on each youth incarcerated, or approximately $88,000 per child. What does this say about our priorities? Incarceration is more important than education?