Welcome to the inaugural issue of "In the Loop"

In this issue

• MST deemed effective by NIH panel
• 2006 Blueprints Conference slated for March 2006
• Swenson Named Associate Director
• MST Recognized by GAINS Center
• MST Community Announcements

MST deemed effective by NIH panel

Violence creates enormous financial, health and social costs on our society. Many prevention and intervention programs to address violence and related youth behavior problems have been developed out of need but few have been rigorously evaluated for their safety and effectiveness.

MST was one of only two programs identified as being an effective option for youth and adolescents dealing with problems such as aggression, delinquency, drug abuse, violence and other health-risking social behaviors.

The NIH expert panel of practitioners and researchers assembled for a 2-day conference in Bethesda, Maryland on October 13-15 to examine and assess the current state of America's youth violence issue with regard to interventions that reduce the risk of youth violence and related behavior problems.

Scott Henggeler, PhD

Scott Henggeler, PhD, a lead researcher of MST, was invited by the National Institutes of Health to present information about the latest research findings and the costs and benefits of MST to the panel. Dr. Henggeler was one of approximately 20 experts in the country that were selected to present during the conference. Dr. Henggeler is the director of the Family Services Research Center and a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

After a day and half of presentations and public discussion, the panel weighed the available evidence and drafted a statement that addressed preventing violence and related health-risking social behaviors in adolescents. The draft statement is currently available on the NIH Consensus Development Web site at http://consensus.nih.gov. A final version will be posted on the same Web site in three to four weeks.

Following the conference, the NIH issued a press release stating, "The panel highlighted two programs that are clearly effective in reducing arrests and out-of-home placements: Functional Family Therapy, and Multisystemic Therapy. Among the important characteristics that these programs have in common are a focus on developing social competency skills, a long-term approach, and family involvement."

The NIH also stated that the panel found that group detention centers, boot camps, and other "get tough" programs often exacerbate problems by grouping young people with delinquent tendencies, where the more sophisticated instruct the more naïve. Similarly, the practice of transferring juveniles to the adult judicial system can be counterproductive, resulting in greater violence among incarcerated youth.

The 13-member independent panel included practitioners and researchers in community and family medicine, pediatrics, nursing, psychiatry, behavioral health, economics, juvenile justice, outcomes research, and a public representative. The panel reviewed an extensive collection of scientific literature related to youth violence prevention, including a systematic literature review prepared by the Southern California Evidence-Based Practice Center, under contract with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The conference was sponsored by The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Office of Medical Applications of Research (OMAR), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Library of Medicine, the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

• For more information about the NIH conference, visit http://consensus.nih.gov
• NIH press release can be found at http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/oct2004/od-15.htm

2006 Blueprints Conference Slated for March 2006

Denver Adam's Mark Hotel

The Blueprints for Violence Prevention Program at the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV), at the University of Colorado at Boulder has teamed up with four organizations to host a full-scale 2½ day conference at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver, Colorado on March 13-15, 2006. The goal is to bring all model evidence-based programs under one roof to share information and experiences as it relates to helping youth and their families.

"The purpose of bringing evidence-based programs together in one location is to provide a first-class conference that offers continuing education and networking opportunities for model evidence-based prevention and intervention programs for youth and their families," explained Sharon Mihalic, director of the Blueprints program.

"Together with the commitment from Evidence-Based Associates, Functional Family Therapy (FFT), Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC), we are able to offer a conference that will be the first of its kind and set a foundation for future collaboration among evidence-based programs," continued Mihalic. A planning committee has been put together for this conference and currently meets once a month. Stay tuned for more information about this conference and information on how to participate and support this unique event.

Swenson named Associate Director of Family Services Research Center

Cindy Swenson, PhD

Cynthia Cupit Swenson, PhD has been named associate director of Family Services Research Center (FSRC) at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston. For the past eight years, she has been heavily involved in FSRC's rigorous research on the development, validation, and dissemination of clinically-effective and cost-effective mental health and substance abuse services for youths presenting serious clinical problems and their families. Dr. Swenson assumed this position this past summer, when Dr. Sonja Schoenwald the center's previous associate director began telecommuting to her job at the FSRC from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Established in 1992, the main focus of FSRC is to increase the effectiveness of the state and nation's mental health and substance abuse services for children, adolescents, and their families. As associate director, Dr. Swenson will play a more central role in the strategy planning process for future multisystemic therapy (MST) research.

Through her National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) funded research, Dr. Swenson has taken the lead in applying MST to youth and families who come to the attention of Child Protective Services due to violence within the family. In addition, she was the lead researcher on a Healthy South Carolina Initiative called the Neighborhood Solutions Project.

In the latter project, Dr. Swenson and FSRC staff joined with leaders and residents in one of the highest crime neighborhoods in South Carolina to turn the neighborhood around. Through this partnership, neighborhood residents and stakeholders identified adolescent crime, adolescent substance abuse, school expulsion and suspension as the most pressing child- and family-related problems in the neighborhood. With community collaboration, interventions were designed to address these issues.

Dr. Swenson and her team of MST therapists introduced the MST treatment model to numerous families and worked with them to reduce violence and drug use and improve their home life. The Neighborhood Solutions Project was a huge success and Dr. Swenson, along with neighborhood leaders have written a book outlining the project and its results, scheduled to be out in January 2005.

Dr. Swenson graduated from Northeast Louisiana University with a bachelor's and master's degree in psychology, minoring in French. Prior to her master's study, Dr. Swenson worked with street gangs outside of Los Angeles and studied French in Angers, France. She held a certification for teaching French through the Council of Development of French in Louisiana. She worked as a psychologist in the public school system in Louisiana for three years and then went on to earn doctoral degrees in clinical psychology and school psychology from Florida State University. She completed her internship and a post-doctoral fellowship in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at MUSC in clinical child and pediatric psychology.

She is licensed by the state of South Carolina as both a clinical and school psychologist and holds national certification in school psychology. Dr. Swenson has dedicated her entire professional career to teaching and helping children and their families and plans to continue doing so for years to come.

"My day-to-day life is demanding but the rewards outweigh the demands, hands down," explains Dr. Swenson. "When I see families make life altering changes that place their children on a positive path, I know I am doing the job I was meant to do."

MST Recognized by GAINS Center

Scott H. Henggeler, PhD, a lead MST researcher and a key developer of the treatment model, was presented the National GAINS Center 2004 National Achievement Award at the National GAINS Center's conference in Las Vegas earlier this year.

Originally established in 1995 and refunded in 2000, The National GAINS Center is a national locus for the collection and dissemination of information about effective mental health and substance abuse services for people with co-occurring disorders in contact with the U.S. Justice System.

Headquartered in Delmar, New York, the National GAINS Center is funded by two branches of the Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - The Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) and the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). In addition, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Office of Justice Programs and the National Institute of Corrections serve as partners.

The primary purpose of the National GAINS Center is to expand access to community-based services for adult and juvenile offenders with co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorders at all points of contact with the U.S. Justice System.

"We are pleased to make this award to MST and to Dr. Henggeler for altering the treatment landscape for youth and for having successfully dispelled the myth that 'nothing works'," stated Joseph J. Cocozza, PhD, co-director of the National GAINS Center and director of the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. "The impact of MST in the field of juvenile justice and mental health cannot be overstated. MST has provided renewed hope to families empowering them with the skills and resources necessary to effectively manage the problems that arise in the lives of their children."

For more information about the National GAINS Center, visit www.gainsctr.com.

MST Community Announcements

Since January 2004, the following teams have been added to the MST Community:

State	Organization	# of Teams
Arizona	Apache Behavioral Health	1
Arizona	Touchstone Behavioral Health	3
Colorado	Synergy	1
Connecticut	Wheeler Clinic	3
Connecticut	Connecticut Junior Republic	3
Connecticut	Connecticut Renaissance	3
Connecticut	North American Family Institute	2
Connecticut	Community Solutions	1
Georgia	Community Solutions	4
Louisiana	Jefferson Parish Human Services Associates.	3
Louisiana	Resources for Human Development	1
Maryland	Community Counseling and Mentoring	1
New Mexico	Teambuilders	1
New Mexico	Professional Assessment Center	1
New York	Coordinated Children's Services	1
Ohio	Junction Psychological Services	1
Pennsylvania	Community Solutions	1
Country	International Teams
Denmark	MST Denmark	3
Norway	MST Norway	1
Sweden	MST Sweden	1

Earlier this year, MST Services announced the following:

Joe Boggs, PhD was appointed to serve as the organization's chief operations officer (COO), a newly created position at MST Services. He has been an associate with MST Services since September 1998 and was previously employed as a consultant.

Patrick Duffy, PsyD was promoted to manager of network partnerships. Duffy has previously worked at MST Services as a consultant

Tiffany Britt joined MST Services as the organization's receptionist.