PermiaCare implements new therapy for at-risk youth in the local area

ODESSA, Texas (KMIDD/KPEJ)- PermiaCare, the Local Mental Health Authority that serves 27,000 square miles in West Texas, announced its implementation of a new program that provides services to the at-risk youth in Midland and Ector Counties.

The new program is known as an innovative Multisystemic Therapy (MST) and was a result of the Texas Legislature’s $32.5 million investment into MST, including a $21 million fund to 15 additional MST teams across the state.

Multisystemic Therapy is a community-based program for at-risk youth that typically lasts three to five months and has proven to be most effective for treating youth who have committed violent offenses, have serious mental health or substance abuse concerns, are at risk of out-of-home placement, or have experienced abuse or neglect.

Shandra Wiginton, the Family Resiliency Center Director and MST Program Manager for PermiaCare said that this resource is different than other ones because it involves the child’s entire social system.

“It is not just an individual therapy program for adolescents. We offer those services from PermiaCare, but the MST program is different because we work with the entire social system of the adolescent,” Wiginton said. “It’s not just parents. It’s not just school. It’s not just, you know, the neighborhood, it’s everybody involved. We’re touching all of those different systems in that young person’s life.”

The four-therapist team, which began taking referrals on July 1, is available to youth and families 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, right in their homes.

“Hopefully, this is going to have a huge positive impact on our area,” Wiginton said. “We’ve never seen a program like this here. Multisystemic therapy has been around for a very long time, but not here, and so this is a different approach to tackle a long-existing problem.”

MST is reported to be the only evidence-based treatment that has been shown to reduce violent crime among adolescents, bringing rates down by as much as 75%.

Currently, the MST program is available only through referral.

Referrals are made from various people/sources that come into contact with the child, such as social workers, case managers, probation officers, community-based mental health providers, etc.

For more information about PermiaCare’s Multisystemic Therapy Services, visit this website .

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