Michigan can reduce its $2-billion state prison budget partly by diverting juvenile offenders to treatment.

When Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder decided to present his ambitious plan for justice reform, he chose Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, which makes it a practice to hire former convicts, as his setting. He also chose to have representatives from the Livingston County juvenile court and a Multisystemic Therapy (MST) supervisor from Highfields, Inc. in attendance. Snyder’s staff learned of the court’s success in implementing programs that help kids, programs that save money.

In her own works, A mom from the U.K. tells how MST turned a dark, negative place into “happy house.”

Listen to the mom in her own words below, or read the transcript.

We heard about MST through other people, but my son was too young, and it wasn’t possible. And then when he was old enough, we didn’t know whether we would get funding for it, but we did. We would have done anything at that point to try and make things right.

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.”

The cost of not using evidence-based programs for troubled youths is high

Proponents of Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and other evidence-based programs say it over and over. Give young people experiencing difficulties the right intervention and you save society enormous amounts of money by keeping them home, out of jail, and turning them into productive citizens.

Fifty British charities have weighed in on the subject. They estimate that a failure to intervene early leads to crises more costly to fix later. More costly? How about $2 billion more costly.

A mom was ready to place her child. Nothing was working until she found MST.

Jackie was referred to MST in December 2014. I called her mother’s cell four or five times without any contact. I drove to their home one day. Jackie and her mother lived in rural Southwest Pennsylvania. No one was home. I left a note.

Whatever it Takes Awards Announced at International Conference

Multisystemic Therapy (MST), which works with high-risk juvenile offenders to keep them at home, in school, and out of trouble, announced the 2014 Annual Whatever It Takes (WIT) winners at the MST International Conference held in Charleston, SC earlier this week.  

Psychologist finds great alternative for youth with Multisystemic Therapy

As a young clinical psychologist, fresh out of graduate school working for a private community mental-health agency, I was referred to a 16-year-old white male for an “evaluation and assessment.”  The evaluation and assessment is common task in the child-serving system. Though it has different names, different funding streams and can be performed at a myriad of points in the process, it is always done for the same basic reason: to receive an expert’s opinion on what next steps should be taken in a child’s care. For the young man before me, it wasn’t quite clear what that step should be.

Multisystemic Therapy helps shut down safe-houses in the UK 

In an Inner London borough on a hot summer’s day, unusual for the U.K. (remember, we are obsessed with the weather this side of the pond), the MST team was supporting a family in search of their 13-year-old daughter, who was out past curfew, putting herself at risk. This was time for us to help this family learn to increase monitoring and supervision as well as help their daughter get involved in pro-social activities.

Our MST therapists have learned over time that we must show families how to do higher-level interventions needed to extract their teens from criminal peers. These interventions sometimes include locating and poisoning “safe houses” and posting pictures of the young person in the community to alert others that this teen is vulnerable and the family needs their support. (“Safe houses” are homes or places where a teen thinks she or he can go and are “safe” because parents and other adults don’t know where they are, and even if they did, the adults wouldn’t dare go looking for them there.) These MST interventions are performed with care to ensure the safety of this high-risk population. Here are two of our favorite success stories, demonstrating this is always done with hope, humor, and sticking to the MST Analytic Process and Principles.

Finding the Right FIT for Mum and Son With Multisystemic Therapy

MST clinicians often get asked how we affect change in families who are mandated to services or families who have not had success in other services. The answer is pretty straightforward, in MST, we maintain a constant focus on engagement and alignment, we meet people where they are and leverage their strengths for change.

This case began deceptively well. The family had bought into meeting with the therapist and changing the son’s behavior. Then a barrier was hit. The mother wasn’t buying MST’s focus on working with and treating the entire family.

An MST therapist weighs in on treating trauma

As practitioners of Multisystemic Therapy, we are often asked if MST can be helpful for youth who have experienced trauma. While MST is not a treatment model designed to provide trauma-focused care, the short answer is—yes.