Multisystemic Therapy for Emerging Adults With Serious Mental Illness and Justice Involvement

Abstract

Most serious mental illnesses (SMI) have onset by emerging adulthood and SMI can impair adolescents' transitions into healthy, productive adults. Emerging adults (EAs) with SMI are at high risk for justice involvement, and rates of recidivism are greater for offenders with SMI than without. These EAs are frequently multi-system involved (e.g., aging out of foster care; both juvenile and adult arrests; prison reentry). Few interventions, however, have focused specifically on EAs, and no interventions have focused on reducing recidivism in EAs with or without SMI. Multisystemic Therapy for Emerging Adults (MST-EA) is an adaptation of standard MST (for adolescent antisocial behavior) that was specifically designed for EAs with SMI and justice involvement. This paper provides the first description of MST-EA, including clinical outcome data on pilot cases and an extensive case example. To date, 57 cases have been treated with MST-EA. Success at discharge was demonstrated on main outcomes (rearrest and mental health) and other functional outcomes. Clinical data on pilot cases is promising and supports further research to assess long-term outcomes and effectiveness.

Offenders living with mental illness: How are they perceived by future professionals?

“…The FACT adaptation adds team members with criminal justice expertise into a team that included only helping professionals in the original ACT model. MST-Emerging Adult is another 24/7 model that shows early promise with young adult offenders living with serious mental health disorders (Davis et al., 2015; Sheidow, McCart, & Davis, 2016).…”

Programs for Care System Transitions in Mental Health: A Systematic Review

“…The results of the literature searches and screening decisions are shown in a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) flow diagram (Figure 3.1). Full-text screening yielded 17 studies in 21 publications that met inclusion criteria (Binswanger et al, 2015;Cheng et al, 2018;Gilmer et al, 2012a;Hartwell, Fisher, and Deng, 2009;Hourani et al, 2012;Jarrett et al, 2012;Kidd et al, 2019;Kinner et al, 2016;Kinner et al, 2013;Kinner et al, 2014;MacInnes et al, 2021;McKenna et al, 2015;Moosa and Sandhu, 2015;Sheidow, McCart, and Davis, 2016;Tsai and Goggin, 2017;Wang et al, 2012;Wenzlow et al, 2011;.…”

The Justice System and Young Adults With Substance Use Disorders

“…51 Multisystemic Therapy-Emerging Adults, an innovative adaptation of standard multisystemic therapy for adolescents to emerging adults with a serious mental illness and justice involvement, has been piloted with promising outcomes in reducing both substance use and recidivism. 52 Some jurisdictions have launched initiatives for young adults that build on the successes of mentoring interventions for children and adolescents. 53 For example, the Arches Transformative Mentoring program (Arches) of New York City's Department of Probation, a group mentoring program serving young adult probation clients ages 16 to 24, is based on the idea that "credible messengers," people with backgrounds similar to those of their mentees, often including previous criminal justice system involvement, are best positioned to engage the young adults who are hardest to reach.…”