Baltimore City
Health Department

Multisystemic Therapy

Overview

In 2007, the Office of Youth Violence Prevention will make Multisystemic Therapy, a proven intervention for children at high risk of violence, available to 50 to 60 families per year through a partnership with Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc.  The project is funded by grants from the United States Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs and the Baltimore Community Foundation. 

Multisystemic therapy (MST) is an intensive family- and community-based treatment for youth presenting with serious emotional disturbance, including substance abuse problems, major conduct disorders, and other problems, who are at risk of out-of-home placement.  The intervention assists patients to function in their natural settings – home, school and neighborhood – in order to reduce rearrest, substance abuse, and out-of-home placements and improve family functioning in the long term.  Therapists seek to build on youth and family strengths (protective factors) in order to reduce risk factors.  The treatment empowers parents with the skills and resources to promote the child’s success in the family, school and community.  The typical length of treatment is 3 to 5 months. 

MST is an evidence-based practice with a two-decade record of success that has been recognized by the Surgeon General, National Institutes on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, and Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, and President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health(1).  One study of a cohort of chronic juvenile offenders in Columbia, Missouri showed decreased psychiatric symptoms and recidivism four years post treatment(2); these youth also demonstrated 54% fewer re-arrests and 57% fewer days of incarceration compared to youth undergoing individual counseling nearly 14 years post-treatment (3). Another study showed significantly increased rates of marijuana abstinence among substance abusing and dependent juveniles 4 years post treatment (4).  Most recently, a study of youth in Hawaii with serious emotional disturbance showed that youth enrolled in MST showed significantly improved externalizing and internalizing symptoms and significantly fewer days in out-of-home placement compared to youth in standard services (5).

For more information about Multisystemic Therapy and its effectiveness, please visit the MST Services website. For more information on Multisystemic Therapy in Baltimore, please contact the Office of Youth Violence Prevention.

(1) See U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1999). Mental health: A report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health; U.S. Public Health Service (2001). Youth violence: A report of the Surgeon General. Washington, DC; National Institute on Drug Abuse. (1999). Principles of drug addiction treatment: A research-based guide. NIH Publication No. 99-4180; National Institutes of Health (2004). Preventing violence and related health-risking social behaviors in adolescents: An NIH State-of-the-Science Conference. Bethesda, MD; Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) (2000). Strengthening America’s families: Model family programs for substance abuse and delinquency prevention. Salt Lake City, Utah: Department of Health Promotion and Education, University of Utah; and President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health (2003). Achieving the promise: Transforming mental health care in America -- Final Report. Rockville, MD:  DHHS. (2) Borduin, C. M., Mann, B. J., Cone, L. T., Henggeler, S. W., Fucci, B. R., Blaske, D. M., & Williams, R. A. (1995). Multisystemic treatment of serious juvenile offenders: Long-term prevention of criminality and violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 569-578.

(3) Schaeffer, C. M., & Borduin, C. M. (2005). Long-Term Follow-Up to a Randomized Clinical Trial of Multisystemic Therapy With Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(3), 445-453.

(4) Henggeler, S. W., Clingempeel, W. G., Brondino, M. J., & Pickrel, S. G. (2002). Four-year follow-up of multisystemic therapy with substance abusing and dependent juvenile offenders. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 41, 868-874. (5) Rowland, M.D., Halliday-Boykins, C.A., Henggeler, S.W., Cunningham, P.B., Lee, T.G., Kruesi, M.J.P., & Shapiro, S.B. (2005). A randomized trial of multisystemic therapy with Hawaii 's Felix Class youths . Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 13 (1).13-23.

 

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