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Understanding The Buckeye Ranch’s Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) Program: Support for Youth and Families in Need 

At The Buckeye Ranch, our mission is to raise hope and provide healing for children, youth, and families across Ohio through behavioral health, mental health, education, and child welfare support services. The Buckeye Ranch’s Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) program is one of our six Community-Based Mental Health Services programs that are designed to work with children, their families, and members of the community in their homes or at our locations to reduce concerning behaviors while helping those clients meet their own unique goals and plans. 

But what exactly is MST? One of our two MST Supervisors, Stacy, is here to help you learn more: 

Understanding the Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) Program at The Buckeye Ranch 

MST is an evidence-based program that supports youth with serious juvenile offences. The program works specifically with Franklin County Children Services (FCCS), Franklin County Juvenile Court, the Ohio Department of Youth Services (DYS), and the Franklin County Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health (ADAMH) Board. 

The MST program is designed to address a youth’s mental health, behavioral, and/or substance use challenges. Treatment interventions work to strengthen the relationship between the child and parent while decreasing delinquent and defiant behavior.   

MST provides intensive (2-4 hours/week) in-home and in-community services, including 24-hour crisis intervention, to youth and families struggling with the challenges of illegal behaviors, substance use, oppositional behaviors, and severe family conflict. 

The Multi-Systemic Component of Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) 

Children and youth with complex needs are often part of multiple community systems, including local juvenile justice, child protection, education, and mental health programs. Youth who receive support from our MST program are directly referred to the program through involvement with another community system, including FCCS or Franklin County Juvenile Court. 

Our team supports care coordination between a child’s treatment plan in MST and required milestones set in place by any other system they are navigating in the community. This helps to create a unified plan to ensure the client reaches their goals and accesses the mental and behavioral health support they need.  

he juvenile justice and children services systems can be a challenging experience for youth and families. Navigating different requirements and communications from multiple community partners can become overwhelming, especially for families experiencing the system for the first time. It can be difficult to know the right questions to ask, or how to advocate for your needs. MST can help reduce these barriers. 

To support youth and family success, our MST team works directly with families to ensure they get the right support from multiple services and systems. Our team members are trained to provide care that reflects the cultural, racial, ethnic, and linguistic differences of the populations we serve to eliminate disparities in care. 

The Nine Key Treatment Principles that Guide Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) at The Buckeye Ranch 

The Buckeye Ranch’s MST program develops treatment plans for youth based on nine guiding treatment principles that help us provide the most effective, culturally sensitive care:

• Finding the Fit: The primary purpose of assessment is to understand the ‘fit’ between the identified problems and their broader systematic context. 

• Positive and Strength-Focused: Therapeutic contacts should emphasize the positive and should use systematic strengths as levers for change. 

• Increasing Responsibility: Interventions should be designed to promote responsible behavior and decrease irresponsible behavior among family members. 

• Present-Focused, Action-Oriented, and Well-Defined: Interventions should be present focused and action-oriented targeting specific and well-defined problems. 

• Targeting Sequences: Interventions should target sequences of behavior within or between multiple systems that maintain the identified problems. 

• Developmentally Appropriate: Interventions should be developmentally appropriate and fit the developmental needs of the youth. 

• Continuous Effort: Interventions should be designed to require daily or weekly effort by family members. 

• Evaluation and Accountability: Intervention efficacy is evaluated continuously from multiple perspectives with providers assuming accountability for overcoming barriers to successful outcomes. 

• Generalization: Interventions should be designed to promote treatment generalization and long-term maintenance of therapeutic change by empowering caregivers to address family members needs across multiple systemic contexts. 

How Does the Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) Program Set Youth Up for Long-Term Success? 

The Buckeye Ranch adheres to the Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) approach to family-centered treatment across our programs, including MST. This strengths-based approach is organized around elements common in successful evidence-based models of treatment with the goal of reducing out-of-home placements. 

At The Buckeye Ranch, we know that effective treatment for youth requires treatment of their entire family system for them to have long-term success. MST prioritizes family voice and choice, ensuring youth and families have a voice in and participate with the treatment plan. 

Relationship challenges within a youth’s family system, if left unaddressed, can manifest externalizing behaviors, such as trouble focusing, physical aggression, acting out, hyperactivity, impulsivity, or verbal aggression. Often, families carry generational trauma that impacts a child’s development, so The Buckeye Ranch utilizes a trauma-informed care approach to complement the family-centered therapeutic care. MST team members cannot fully understand behaviors a youth or family are engaging in without an understanding of the profound effect of early childhood trauma. Meeting families where they are at and understanding the entire family unit’s experience is key to long-term stability. 

Ensuring that the entire family unit is involved in the youth’s treatment plan to ensure trauma is understood, addressed, and supported is key to building a strong foundation for support and continued success once the youth discharges from the MST program.  

We believe families are resilient and have strengths and resources that can be used in building solutions and achieving client change, and ultimately, are the key to ensuring a child can heal and blossom into who they’re meant to be. 

How The Buckeye Ranch’s Continuum of Care Ensures Healing for Youth Supported by Multi-Systemic Therapy 

When a part of the MST program, clinicians will work with youth and their family to gain access to support needed to heal. This includes supporting linkage to any of the 17 other programs within The Buckeye Ranch’s continuum of care during MST program involvement or after discharge.  

This could include another Community-Based Mental Health Program, an Education-Based Mental Health program, an Intergrated Care Services program, a Child Welfare Services program, or even a Residential Treatment Services program, if needed. Whatever is in store for the youth after discharge, The Buckeye Ranch will continue to be a resource through every step of their healing journey 

To learn more about The Buckeye Ranch’s MST program, visit our website. You can learn more about our other five Community-Based Mental Health Services programs here. To inquire about services with The Buckeye Ranch or make a referral click here, or call us directly at 614-875-2371 for more information.