Each year, MST Services’ Network Partner Conference (NPC), a professional development opportunity, is hosted for all Network Partner Directors, MST Experts, and Network Partner Program Developers around the world. This year, the first of two conferences was held virtually and offered a variety of workshops to help strengthen professionals’ knowledge and skills in the areas of MST case conceptualization, addressing conflict and violence in the home between intimate partners, working with marginalized populations, and supporting at-risk youth – while connecting with a global network of MST colleagues.

During the school year, Sabine Polak received a call from the guidance counselor regarding her 14-year-old daughter. In addition to being depressed, her daughter had contemplated suicide. Sabine brought her daughter to a crisis center to address her pressing mental health concerns and soon found out that her daughter's intense anxiety was caused by social media. The main reason for her stress was waiting for her friends to respond on Snapchat.

Change - the word one hears when thinking about the COVID-19 pandemic. By definition, it refers to a loss of identity or exchange of one thing for another. After the rapid evolution of virtual means and distancing tactics, many professionals had to adjust to new routines.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, students around the globe have participated in virtual learning, hybrid courses, and smaller in-person classes. As a result, adolescents are facing worrisome effects from these abnormal school settings. However, after a long year, many school districts are reopening this autumn.

On any given night in the United States, around 41,000 unaccompanied youth and young adults ages 12-25 experience homelessness, along with an estimated 4.2 million young people every year. Many factors lead to adolescents facing this growing issue.

Summer is here, and teenagers have a break from academic responsibilities—allowing them to have more time on their hands. During these months, the majority of adolescents have less structure and supervision and it is not a time to ignore the actions of youth illegal activity. While the overall juvenile arrest rates are decreasing, the number of teens who get in trouble with the law each summer remains high.

Every year around 250,000 U.S. children are placed in the foster care system. However, 2020 was a year like no other. So, where does the system stand?

Thanksgiving is often a time of reflection and gratitude in one’s life. Today we want to share an update from a Norway Multisystemic Therapy Expert, Ingvild Stjernen Tisløv, about providing MST services during the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Being responsible for a home-based service in child welfare during COVID-19 has been a balancing act between ethical dilemmas, legal constraints and pragmatism. The experience so far is that if we are to crack the virus and at the same time safeguard the most vulnerable in society, we must have an approach where the client – not the fear – is in the driver's seat.

With the world facing many challenges from the 2020 pandemic, the education sector of society comes to mind as one of the biggest overnight transformations. Covid-19 has disrupted the school system in a variety of ways in order to contain the spread of the virus. 87% of the world’s student population has been affected by school closures. Now, educational institutions have transitioned from traditional learning to remote learning or hybrid class settings through phases. This has created an array of obstacles for many children and their families.

With October being the month of Mental Health Awareness Day, it is important to know the effects that the Covid-19 pandemic is having on juveniles’ mental health. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that between April through June, younger adults reported disproportionately worse mental health outcomes, increased substance use, and elevated suicidal ideation, than the same time period in 2019.