Welcome to the Winter 2010 Issue of "In the Loop"

In this issue

• Featured Story: New York City explores alternatives to jail-time for its youth offenders
• Announcements from MST Services and MST Institute
• MST Community Updates and Announcements
• Update from Family Services Research Center
• New MST-related Publications and Articles

New York City explores alternatives to jail-time for its youth offenders

In his recent State of the City address, New York City Mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, unveiled a plan to combine the city's Department of Juvenile Justice and the Administration for Children's Services (NYC's child welfare agency). The overall intent of this merger is to reduce the amount of youth offenders spending time in jail.

Through "community-based" programming, the city aims to allow youth offenders, who are deemed not dangerous to the community, to remain with their families, in their homes and in their communities. Previously, judges have sentenced these youths to release on probation or time in juvenile detention facilities or residential homes. Now, a third option will be available: allowing the teen to return to his or her home, and undergo intense community-based programs which will incorporate curfews, meeting academic goals and accountability for his or her actions.

The ultimate goal rests in the desire to rehabilitate these juvenile offenders to become responsible, productive members of their communities. Additionally, the city will save money, by reducing the capacities of its detention facilities, reduce recidivism, which currently runs at roughly 75 percent for youth offenders within three years of their release from detention centers, and build a more united mechanism for dealing with juvenile crime, by merging the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Administration for Children's Services.

To read the full article visit
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/nyregion/21juvenile.html?emc=eta1.

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Announcements from MST Services and MST Institute

MST welcomes it newest team members

Betsy Clipper, LICSW was trained as an MST therapist in 2000 upon earning her graduate degree from the University of Minnesota. She supervised the MST team from 2002, until the agency had to discontinue providing MST for funding reasons. She went on to be the agency's director of the mental health department for three years until she was offered the position of system supervisor in May 2007. She joined the MST Services team as a consultant in November 2009.

Kimberly Pascucci, LCSW-R, completed her undergraduate work at State University of New York - Brockport and graduate work at Syracuse University. She began working as an MST therapist in June 1999, and as also held the role of MST supervisor and MST system supervisor at Catholic Charities, where she remained until she joined MST Services in October 2009. Kimberly lives in Buffalo, New York, and enjoys spending time with her family and friends as well as attending her twice-weekly gym class.

MSTI Enhanced Web Site: EW 2.0
MSTI staff have continued to fix any identified issues with EW 2.0. In order to familiarize yourself with these changes, please review the Change Log posted at www.msti.org.

MSTI Enhanced Web Site: EW 2.1
EW 2.1 is on the way and will include a mobile dashboard that can be accessed via a smart phone. Development on EW 2.2 started in January 2010, and will include the SAM-R and CAM.

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

Medicaid Users Group
The next call is scheduled for Wednesday, November 18, at 1 p.m. (ET). Interested in joining this call? Please contact Melanie Duncan at melanie.duncan@mstservices.com.

Free MSTI Web Site Training
Free training for the MSTI Web site is now available. Internet access is required to participate and registration is limited. Please sign up early at http://www.mstconference.com/website_training.

Webinars for MST Professionals
Web site training is available via webinars on several topics, and these trainings will be updated in the near future to include information related to EW2 (see above). 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.

Web Services Order Form
A new Web services order form has been posted on the MST Institute Web site, http://www.mstinstitute.org/contact/resources.shtml. This update includes a revised rate of $25/family/month for TAM-R data collection for new collection contracts. Existing TAM-R data collection contracts are not affected by this rate change.

MST Web Site Upgrade
The MST Web site upgrade project is underway. Our hope is to launch the new site just before the Blueprints Conference in April. One major objective of this upgrade is to make MST more "real" and engaging to those who visit the site. To that end, we will be including some case examples on the site. If you have a good case example that we might be able to use, please e-mail Lori Cohen at lori@mavensandmoguls.com.

High Placement Rate Project
A project is underway to identify and provide assistance to MST teams that have the highest rates of youth placement.

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MST Community Updates & Announcements

Evidence-Based Practice Consortium's 'MA Level Competencies Survey'
Presenter: David Bernstein, MSW
David Bernstein, MSW, speaks on behalf of the Child and Family Evidence-Based Practices Consortium, a global collaboration of researchers, administrators and consultants, seeking to promote the implementation and dissemination of evidence-based and promising practices in the area of child and family behavioral health.
Download Slides (pdf)

Welcome New MST Teams

Easter Seals UCP North Carolina Inc.	Easter Seals UCP MST Wake County Team 1	NC
Rise 'N' Shine Counseling Agency LLC	Rise 'N' Shine Ascension Team	LA
Uplift Comprehensive Services	Pasquotank	NC
Preventive Measures Programs Inc.	Grace	LA
Ambulatorium	Zetten 2	Netherlands
Dimence	MST Team Hanzestreek	Netherlands
NHS Greater Glasgow	Glasgow West	United Kingdom
Wirral UK	Wirral MST Team 1	United Kingdom
Youth Villages	Pinehurst 2	NC
Uplift Comprehensive Services	Martin County	NC
Cognitive Development Center	CDC Baton Rouge	LA
Teambuilders Counseling Services Inc.	Team Las Vegas	NV
Brandon Centre	Brandon Centre MST PSB Team	United Kingdom
FJP De Viersprong	Etten Leur PST	Netherlands
WA Family Intensive Team	FIT South Metropolitan	Perth
WA Family Intensive Team	FIT North Metropolitan	Perth
The Center for Children and Families	CFCF Monroe	LA
The Center for Children and Families	CFCF Rayville	LA
Cayuga Home for Children	Rochester	NY

Quarterly "Whatever It Takes" Recipients
The following individuals received "Whatever It Takes" recognition this past quarter. These individuals, teams, or programs have demonstrated creative, out-of-the-box thinking, persistence and dedication to do "whatever it takes" to accomplish a positive MST outcome for MST youth and their families. Congratulations to the following recipients!

Kathy Williams, Mr. Chamberlin,  Tonja Blackmon	East High School	OH
Molly Bociek	Adelphoi	NY
Mark Hayward	Starling Middle School	OH
Patience Sturtz	Youth Villages	NC
Barry Greenlee	Youth Villages	TN
Todd Provenzano	St. Aloysius Orphanage	OH
Nancy Rodda	Genessee County Community Mental Health	MI

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

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News Briefs from Family Services Research Center at MUSC

Highlighted article - Cartwright, W.S., Kitsantas, P. & Rose, S. (2009). A Demographic-Economic Model for Adolescent Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention. Journal of Social Welfare, 2009, 25, 157-172.
Presented by Scott Henggeler, PhD.

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New Publications

The following MST-related publications are available:

• 343 Ellis, D.E., Naar-King, S., Templin, T., Frey, M.A., & Cunningham, P.B. (2009). Improving health outcomes among youth with poorly controlled type I diabetes: The role of treatment fidelity in a randomized clinical trial of multisystemic therapy. Journal of Family Psychology, 363-371.
• 346 Schaeffer, C.M., Chang, R., & Henggeler, S.W. (2009). Responding to use of illicit drugs. In K. Geldard (Ed.), Practical interventions for young people at risk (pp. 134-144). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• 350 Letourneau, E. J., Borduin, C. M. (2008). The effective treatment of juveniles who sexually offend: An ethical imperative. Ethics and Behavior, 18(2-3), 286-306.doi: 10.1080/10508420802066940.
• 351 Foster, S. L., Cunningham, P. B., Warner, S. E., McCoy, D. M., Barr, T. S., & Henggeler, S. W. (2009). Therapist behavior as a predictor of black and white caregiver responsiveness in multisystemic therapy. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 626-635. doi: 10.1037/a0016228.
• 352 Naar-King, S., Ellis, D., Kolmodin, K., Cunningham, P.B., Jen, C., Saelens, B. & Brogan, K. (2009). A randomized pilot study of Multisystemic therapy targeting obesity in african-american adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(4), 317-319.doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.03.022.
• 353 Naar-King, S., Ellis, D., Kolmodin, K., Cunningham, P.B., & Secord, E. (2009). Feasibility of adapting multisytemic therapy to improve illness management behaviors and reduce asthma morbidity in high risk african american youth: A case series. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 18(5), 564-573. doi: 10.1007/s10826-009-9259-9.

All MST-related publications can be located at: www.musc.edu/psychiatry/research/fsrc/pubs.htm

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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.