MST | Multisystemic Therapy Program

We offer Multisystemic Therapy (or MST) out of our Shreveport, Lake Charles and Monroe Family Plus offices. MST is a non-residential treatment program provided in the homes and communities of clients.

Our MST program keeps families together by putting resources in the home and preventing the removal of children from their families. Each year, each of our MST therapists helps an average of 15 families stay together by preventing the removal of children.

Multisystemic Therapy is an effective, evidence-based treatment program for adolescents with complex clinical, social and educational problems. Problems addressed by this intensive, family and community-based service include violent behaviors, drug abuse and school expulsion.

Over a period of three to six months, MST is delivered in homes, neighborhoods, schools and communities by master's level professionals with small case loads which allow the MST therapists to give focused attention to a family.

MST interventions seek to improve caregiver discipline practices, enhance emotional relationships in families, decrease a youth's association with negative peers, increase a youth's association with positive peers, improve a youth's school or work performance, engage a youth in positive recreational outlets, and develop an local support network of extended family, neighbors, and friends who can help caregivers achieve and maintain such changes.

A crucial aspect of MST is its emphasis on promoting behavior change in the youth's natural environment. MST focuses on building home-centered support networks.

While specific strengths and weaknesses will vary among families, several problem areas are targeted as goals of change for juvenile offenders and their families.

Initial family sessions identify the strengths and weaknesses of the youth, the family, and their interactions with people and organizations outside the family (e.g., peers, friends, school, parental workplace). Identified problems are specifically targeted for change, and the strengths of each part of the family's living environment are used to help these changes occur.