(MST) Program is designed for children and adolescents generally between the ages 7 through 17 and their families in North Carolina. These children have antisocial, aggressive/violent behaviors, are at risk of out-of-home placement due to delinquency; are adjudicated youth returning from out-of-home placement; are chronic or violent juvenile offenders, and/or are youth with serious emotional disturbances or abusing substances and involved in the juvenile justice system. Services are available in-home, at school, and in other community settings. The duration of MST intervention is generally three to five months. MST involves families and other systems such as the school staff, probation officers, extended families, and community connections.
MST is an intensive model of treatment based on empirical data and evidence-based interventions that target specific behaviors with individualized behavioral interventions. Services are delivered in a team approach designed to address the identified needs of children and adolescents with significant behavioral problems who need intensive interventions to remain stable in the community. The goal of MST iss to keep youth in the home by delivering an intensive therapy to the family within the home. Structured face-to-face therapeutic interventions provide support and guidance in all areas of functional domains (adaptive, communication, psychosocial, problem solving, behavior management, etc.) therefore promoting the family’s capacity to monitor and manage the youth’s behavior.
Consumers have access to a variety of interventions twenty-four hours a day by staff that will maintain contact and intervene as one organizational team.
MST services are delivered by practitioners who have gone through training and have been certified through the official MST organization. A MST team consists of (at a minimum) a master’s level professional who is the team supervisor and three staff members who provide available 24-hour coverage, 7 days per week. Staff is required to participate in MST introductory training and quarterly training on topics directly related to the needs of MST youth and their family on an ongoing basis. All staff on the MST team shall receive a minimum of one hour of group supervision and one hour of telephone consultation per week. The MST team member to family ratio shall not exceed one to five for each four person team.
To make a referral or for more information on the MST program in North Carolina, contact us at 919-334-0249 or toll free at 800-851-8905 extension 108. |
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Multisystemic Therapy
