Multi-Systemic Therapy Program

The OJJDP FY 10 Earmarks Program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117), H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366 at 702-714.

Resurrection Behavioral Health seeks to sponsor an intensive and evidence-based family stabilization program known as Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST). The program provides in-home, community-based social services and mental health intervention; its approach is marked by frequent clinical contacts. The target population consists of children and youth who have been identified by schools, police departments or social service entities as being at risk for increased negative involvement with law enforcement, the mental health system, street gangs, substance abuse treatment and those who are at risk for victimization by sexual predators.

The MST team is a group of designated social work professionals who intervene intensively in the family milieu. This approach first identifies the causes or exacerbating factors for the maladaptive behavior of the child/youth and then intervenes with the family to restructure the pathological dynamic or develop alternative solutions to the conditions that promote acting-out by the children. The program goals include the reduction or elimination of such behaviors as truancy, run-away, aggression and antisocial affiliation. Progress is measured through the process of treatment review and data base management to track response to intervention and adjust approaches if needed. NCA/NCF