MST therapist works with all systems surrounding child to keep him at home, in school and out of trouble.

Andrew was living with his grandmother and had lost touch with his absent parents. He fought verbally and physically with his older sister, and his grandmother did not know how to intervene. She was seeking placement for him outside the home in order to get him help for his behaviors. At school, Andrew was disruptive in classes, fought with peers, and threatened teachers, resulting in the school taking steps toward a long-term suspension from school. He was on a diversion contact with the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), and the Court Counselor (CC) was planning to take Andrew to court to increase the level of supervision because of his aggressive behaviors. In other words, Andrew was on the brink of being placed outside the home, and things needed to change quickly. 

The top 6 Reasons MST eschews out-of-home placement  

Juvenile crime is, unfortunately, a common topic in today’s news and leaves parents, police and communities struggling in their search for answers. Also unfortunate is the call by some people for “more of the same”—incarceration, residential facilities, or other cocktails of the commonly used approaches that have failed to curb the problem.

Our juvenile justice system is like a bicycle stuck in one gear, and that gear is incarceration. But it just doesn't make good sense to keep building prisons and sticking youth in them for non-violent offenses. The body of evidence on successfully rehabilitating juvenile offenders emphasizes keeping adolescents with their families and in their schools. Worse still, locking kids up doesn’t make our communities safer.