Multisystemic therapy (MST) is an intensive family-based treatment that addresses the known determinants of serious antisocial behavior in adolescents and their families. As such, MST treats those factors in the youth's environment that are contributing to his or her behavior problems. Such factors might pertain to individual characteristics of the youth (e.g., poor problem solving skills), family relations (e.g., inept discipline), peer relations (e.g., association with deviant peers), and school performance (e.g., academic difficulties). On a highly individualized basis, treatment goals are developed in collaboration with the family, and family strengths are used as levers for therapeutic change. Specific interventions used in MST are based on the best of the empirically validated treatment approaches such as cognitive behavior therapy and the pragmatic family therapies. The primary goals of MST are to reduce rates of antisocial behavior in the adolescent, reduce out-of- home placements, and empower families to resolve future difficulties.
Several programmatic features are crucial to the success of MST. The use of a home-based model of service delivery (i.e., low caseloads, time limited duration of treatment) removes barriers of access to care and provides the high level of intensity needed to successfully treat youths presenting serious clinical problems and their multi-need families. Second, the philosophy of MST holds service providers accountable for engaging the family in treatment and for removing barriers to successful outcomes. Such accountability clearly promotes retention in treatment and attainment of the treatment goals. Third, outcomes are evaluated continuously, and the overriding goal of supervision is to facilitate the clinicians' attempts to attain favorable outcomes. Fourth, MST programs place great emphasis on maintaining treatment integrity, and as such, considerable resources are devoted to therapist training, ongoing clinical consultation, service system consultation, and other types of quality assurance.
This program is for treating antisocial behaviours. AARC claims, in no uncertain terms, that it exists to treat people with a chemical addiction. AARC is not supposed to be a behaviour modification institution. However, since everything about AARC is a fraud, it is at least consistent for them to claim to cure all manner of ailments. Vause is true to his calling as a snake-oil salesman. AARC cures the vapors, grippe, flux, dyspepsia, rickets and hoodlumism. Just ask non-licensed, non-psychologist, Mr. Doctordeanscamartist.
