What does Mrs. Claus do when Santa is busy making toys for all good girls and boys? She runs a club to support women who are undergoing cancer treatment.
The Mrs. Claus Club started in Bentleyville, Pa., with the realization that the holidays can be a particularly difficult time for women with lives already filled with stress and anxiety from their diagnosis. Club members provide food baskets and other holiday cheer.
Topics: MST Community
Looking back, I remember my very first day in Multisystemic Therapy (MST). To be exact, it was Feb. 5, 2001. As I sat in the MST 5-Day Orientation, feeling a bit overwhelmed, I found myself wondering "What is this MST all about?" and "What I have gotten myself into?" Spring forward 15-plus years, and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else.
As I think about the families I have worked with, the teammates that I have had the privilege to work alongside, the support I received from my supervisors and experts, I realize there are valuable lessons that I have learned that keep me going every day.
Topics: MST Community
The MST Network Partner Conference (NPC) is an annual event that brings together more than 100 people from across the United States and the world. This year, 20 network partners were represented, with people coming from 14 states and 8 countries.
As a brand new Network Partner Director at the Center for Effective Interventions at the University of Denver, this was my first NPC. Not quite the United Nations, but it was wonderful to see peers and learn from their experience. After only three months on the job, the opportunity to attend this conference at this time was greatly appreciated and needed.
Topics: MST Community
Last week, as Hurricane Matthew devastated Haiti and moved up the southeastern coast of the US, I found it difficult to pull myself away from the news coverage. Families were left displaced, some were separated, most were shell-shocked. I couldn’t help but cross my fingers and hold my breath. I was immediately taken back to my own experience in the recent Louisiana floods.
Left: The home of MST supervisor, Myisha Johnson. Right: A flooded gas station
Topics: MST Community
After graduating from university, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. The only thing I was 100-percent certain about was that I wanted to work with children and families and make a real difference. After a few short-term jobs, a friend, who was a juvenile-probation officer, told me about a new program called Multisystemic Therapy (MST) that really seemed to be helping out kids, and they were hiring. The description seemed to match just what I was looking for, so I applied that day to be an MST therapist and never looked back.
Amy King, left, and Sandy Crotts, right, at MST's 20 year anniversary
Topics: MST Community
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.
Topics: MST Community
In 20 years, we’ve accomplished a lot—200,000 families worldwide have been helped by MST. That’s an incredible feat We have spread MST to 34 states and 15 countries. Are we proud of what we have accomplished? Yes, without question. Is there a lot more to do? You bet.
The MST Services team in Chicago in June 2016
Topics: MST Community
Why does it benefit a juvenile-court judge to reduce detention if it isn't costing him anything? Well, in the words of Chief Judge Steven Teske, it’s because it’s the right thing to do.
And reduce detention he did.
Topics: MST Community
Adopting an evidence-based practice such as Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is not for the faint of heart, as Maria Picone, Family and Community Services Department director at Catholic Charities of Buffalo, discovered. But she also discovered, it is well worth the effort.
Topics: MST Community
If you haven’t seen the Netflix original series, “Making a Murderer,” you might be feeling a bit behind at the water cooler. The series had 19 million viewers in its first 35 days, making it one of the most popular documentaries in recent times. The series follows the Avery family through the wrongful conviction of Steven Avery in 1985 (a charge from which he was exonerated in 2003) to present day. Avery is currently serving a life sentence for the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach. Public opinion varies greatly about his guilt or innocence related to the most recent conviction, although nearly 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for President Obama to grant him a full pardon. While it was difficult for me to draw a conclusion about Avery’s guilt, I am haunted by the treatment of his 16-year-old nephew, Brendan Dassey, accused of being an accomplice in the murder.
Topics: MST Community
