With support from our multisystemic therapy clinician, Braydon and his parents saw huge changes in his life.
Braydon* is 15 years old and lives with his adoptive parents. Two years ago, he was having a hard time and it showed in his behaviour. By the time he was referred to Life Without Barriers’ Multisystemic Therapy (MST) program Braydon had been arrested a number of times, was having trouble containing his anger, was using drugs and alcohol and had stopped going to school.
During this time, he would also leave home for days at a time with no contact with his family. Braydon’s parents wanted to help Braydon, but didn’t have the knowledge of skills of where to start.
When Braydon was referred to our MST program, an MST clinician came into the family’s life and that is when things began to change. MST is different from other approaches to rehabilitation for youth offending as it is truly holistic. MST using the strengths of all the people and systems around a young person - family, peers, school or community, to help facilitate positive behavioural change.
Unlike other programs, it is specifically designed to help the whole family, rather than sending ‘rehabilitated’ young people back into a potentially dysfunctional environment.
The MST clinician began to work with Braydon’s parents to help them manage their stress, emotions and communication skills. At the same time, Braydon was given the skills to cope with his family, peers and problems at school. The MST clinician worked intensively with the family and the school to help Braydon re-enter education.
“I found it hard to believe that the clinician’s ideas would work but boy was I wrong,” said Braydon’s mother.
“Our clinician had an answer for every issue we faced, not only for our child but mine as well.”
At the three-month review, Braydon was back at school, not using drugs and had no new charges. He was living at home, taking part in team sport and building positive peer relationships.
“Our clinician turned our whole life around,” Braydon’s mother said.
We know MST works
As well as directly delivering MST in Australia, we partner with agencies in New Zealand to deliver the same program there. In an evaluation performed by our NZ partners, upon completion from the program 96% of young people were living back at home, 78% were engaged in school or employment and 86% had no new arrests. We feel privileged to support young people and their families create such lasting change.
*Images and name changed to protect the people in this story.
