Welcome to the Fall 2011 Issue of "In the Loop"

In this issue

• Featured Story: Report is First Step to Rethinking Youth Lock-Up
• Network Partner Conference
• MST Network Partner Spotlight: David Bernstein, MSW
• Announcements from MST Services and MST Institute
• MST Community Updates and Announcements
• New MST-related Publications and Articles

Report is First Step to Rethinking Youth Lock-Up

Locking kids up doesn't work, and we've got the facts to prove it, states a recently released report funded by a charitable organization dedicated to children and based on an avalanche of research.

The report, No Place for Kids: The Case for Reducing Juvenile Incarceration, uses hard evidence to demonstrate that incarcerating juveniles does not reduce repeat offending and wastes taxpayer dollars. Published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private charitable organization dedicated to building better futures for disadvantaged children in the U.S., the report is part of a long-term initiative to reduce juvenile incarceration by 50 percent in 10 years.

"We now have overwhelming evidence showing that wholesale incarceration of juvenile offenders is a counterproductive public policy," states the report.

"No Place for Kids" sites evidence that youth correctional facilities subject kids to violence and abuse, produce poor outcomes and high recidivism rates, and fail to provide appropriate care and rehabilitation. Furthermore, it reveals that many confined youth have no records of serious offending, reporting that just 26 percent of the 150,000 juveniles placed in residential programs during 2007 committed a violent index offense.

The Foundation demonstrates that locking up kids is obsolete. "Scholars have identified a number of interventions and treatment strategies in recent years that consistently reduce recidivism among juvenile offenders. None require - and many are inconsistent with - incarceration in large correctional facilities."

MST is sited as one of a "handful of specific treatment methodologies [that] have emerged over the last 25 years that consistently lower the recidivism rates of serious and chronic juvenile offenders when measured against conventional treatment and supervision approaches in carefully constructed scientific trials."

The report continues: "MST... [has] been analyzed in numerous scientific evaluation studies over the past 25 years, including several randomized trials, and they have realized superior results in most."

"Costs average $6,000 to $9,500 per youth for MST... whereas a typical stay in a juvenile corrections facility (9 to 12 months at $241 per day) costs $66,000 to $88,000... Experimental studies of MST have resulted in arrest rates 25 to 70 percent lower than youth receiving usual services. In most studies, MST youth have spent less than half as many days confined for subsequent offenses."

In particular, the report sites the Florida-based Redirection project, a statewide initiative with which MST is involved. "As of August 2008, the Redirection project had saved taxpayers $41.6 million over the prior four years by steering less-serious offenders away from expensive residential confinement and by reducing recidivism."

As the MST community is well aware, the report finds that youth incarceration is wasteful, stating, "...non-residential programming options deliver equal or better results at a fraction of the cost."

"No Place for Kids" reports that, in states that have reduced their juvenile correctional facility populations in recent years, there has not been a resulting increase in juvenile crime or violence. The report outlines successful reform efforts from several states, providing recommendations for how states can reduce juvenile incarceration rates and redesign their juvenile correction systems to better serve our youth and the public.

Among them:

• Invest in promising non-residential alternatives;
• Limit eligibility for correctional placements;
• Adopt best practice reforms for managing youth offenders; and
• Use data to hold systems accountable.

The release of the report launches the Casey Foundation's long-term goal of limiting youth incarceration by replacing it with a system that produces better results. Next year, the foundation begins work with several states to make policy shifts to reduce reliance on youth correctional facilities.

The Foundation's findings concur with much of the data and research on which MST strategies are based, buoying the company's approach and goal of looking beyond traditional correctional facilities as both groups aim to keep kids at home, in school and out of trouble.

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Network Partner Conference

The tenth annual Network Partner Conference took place last month in Charleston, South Carolina. This gathering of licensed partner programs continues to strengthen MST as a whole and builds not only knowledge and ability, but also collaboration and a sense of community for the individuals who are committed to making sure that the MST treatment model is followed with integrity and without variation so that the best outcomes can be realized.

Breakout sessions throughout the three-day conference included such topics as "7 (or so) Habits of Highly Effective Experts" and "Large-Scale System Reform: Success Stories of Making Change Happen." Attendees celebrated the fact that MST currently has 1,500 therapists, 475 supervisors and 100 expert consultants worldwide - resulting in the capacity to serve more than 20,000 youth and families each year. This pool of talented individuals has their work cut out for them and should continue to grow, as Blueprints programs like MST currently only serve 16,000 juvenile justice youths annually - only 5 percent of the highest-risk juvenile offenders.

During this year's conference, seven organizations were recognized for being dedicated Network Partners for ten years:

10-Year Network Partner Awards

Organization	Location
Adelphoi Village	PA
The Center for Effective Interventions	CO
Catholic Charities of Buffalo	NY
Youth Villages	TN
Center for Innovative Practices	OH
Mid-Plains Center for Behavioral Healthcare Services	NE
Atferdssenteret, The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development	Oslo, Norway

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MST Network Partner Spotlight: David Bernstein, MSW

David Bernstein, MSW receives a 10-Year Network Partner Award from Scott Henggeler, Ph.D.

MST network partner David Bernstein, who heads the Denver-based Center for Effective Interventions, was recently recognized by his alma mater for his professional expertise and success.

An alumnus of the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver, Bernstein was named one of two Master Scholars as part of an annual event at the University of Denver that brings alumni from several professional schools to campus for a day as guest lecturers and student mentors.

"This is a wonderful validation to receive during this latter stage of my career," says Bernstein. "I'm very proud. When peers and colleagues recognize you as someone making a significant contribution to the field, it means a lot."

As one of the first MST partner organizations, the Center for Effective Interventions has been instrumental in the company's growth, having developed a Colorado infrastructure that supports teams in several western states.

Bernstein, who calls his work with MST the highlight of his career, says the world of evidence-based practice has been a marvelous intersection of his interests in program development and policy, and of really doing what works on behalf of families and children.

"Everyday in this work, we have the ability to be strong advocates for families by providing them the best services," he says. "These challenging times give us the opportunity to say, 'We can't afford to do business as usual; we really have to do what works.' MST is such an important part of that."

Bernstein has been working with the University of Denver to put emphasis on evidence-based practices. As part of the honorary Master Scholars program, he spent the day on campus sharing his expertise with students. "It's been a great journey, a lot of learning," says Bernstein. "Without the support along the way from my colleagues including those at MST, I would never have gotten to the point where I could receive this award."

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Announcements from MST Services and MST Institute

New evidence-based program registries
UK National Academy for Parenting Research, based at King's College, London, has published a searchable online database called the "Commissioning Toolkit." Program ratings for MST are the highest ratings available.

US Office of Justice Programs has published an online registry, CrimeSolutions.gov, about what works in criminal justice. This registry includes entries for MST, MST-PSB, MST-CAN, MST-Psychiatric and MST-Substance Abuse.

Medicaid Users Group
The next call is scheduled for November 30, 2011 at 1 p.m. (ET). Interested in joining this call? Please contact Melanie Duncan at melanie.duncan@mstservices.com.

MST Institute
In order to assist users in checking their date field entries, the format of dates on the MSTI Enhanced website has been changed to display as mm, dd, yyyy (e.g., Jan 1, 2011) when viewing any form. The way date data is entered and stored in the database has not changed.

Is your MST team listed correctly?
Please review for accuracy the lists of licensed MST programs at http://www.mstservices.com/index.php/teams/licensed-teams.

Free MSTI Website Training
Website training is available via webinars on several topics. Registration is limited to 15 telephone connections and is offered on a first-come, first-served basis. Go to http://www.mstservices.com/training.php and click on "Webinar Registration" to sign up. Access to the Internet and a telephone connection are required to participate.

MST Jobs
Please remember to utilize the free MST Jobs website, http://www.mstjobs.com/, as a part of your agency's staff recruitment strategy. You can post positions, as well as review resumes of individuals who are looking for MST-related opportunities and who have posted their resumes on the site.

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MST Community Updates & Announcements

Each quarter, we pause to recognize individuals, families and teams who have demonstrated creative, out-of-the-box thinking, persistence and dedication to doing "whatever it takes" to accomplish positive outcomes for youth and their families undergoing multisystemic therapy. Congratulations to this quarter's "Whatever It Takes" Award recipients:

Third Quarter 2011 - Whatever It Takes Award Winners

Name	Organization	Location
Diane Kooser	MST Services	PA
Rebecca Fein	New York Foundling	NY
Melissa Golba	Adelphoi Village	PA
Vivian Dadzie	Rosemont Center	OH
Nicole Berwick	Catholic Charities	NY
Megan Sigmon-Olsen	Washington County Community Corrections	MN
Jordan Argus	Franklin County Court of Common Pleas	OH

We would also like to welcome the following new MST teams to the MST community.

Welcome New MST Teams - Third Quarter - 2011

Organization	Team Name	Location	MST Type
A Turning Point Family & Community Services	Encompass	LA	MST
Child Center of New York	CCNY Hale II Team A	NY	MST-CM
Children's Village	CV Way Good Shepherd Team	NY	MST
Fife Council MST	Fife 2	UK	MST
One Hope United	OHU FIT	IL	MST-FIT
The Norwegian Center for Child Behavioral Development	Team Telemark	Norway	MST
Youth Outreach Services	YOS FIT	IL	MST-FIT
Youth Villages	Auburn1	AL	MST

News Briefs from Family Services Research Center at MUSC

"Unique Aspects of Sawyer's and Borduin's Research"
In a recent Network Partner call, Scott Henggeler, Ph.D. presented on a 2011 article titled "Effects of MST through midlife: A 21.9-year follow up to a randomized clinical trial with serious and violent juvenile offenders," from the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. To view Henggeler's recent presentation, click here.

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New Publications

The following MST-related published articles are available:

• 395 Carcone, A. I., MacDonell, K. E., Naar-King, S., Ellis, D. E., Cunningham, P. B., Kaljee, L. (2011). Treatment engagement in a weight-loss intervention for African American adolescents and their families. Children's Health Care, 40, 1-21.

All MST-related publications can be located at the Family Services Research Center's website.

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Have News to Share?
This newsletter has been developed as a communication tool to keep everyone well informed about news, events and issues that impact the greater MST community. We encourage you to explore the contents of this newsletter and provide us with your feedback. Feel free to make recommendations for what you would like to see in future issues. Suggestions can be directed to intheloop@mstservices.com.