Effectiveness of Multisystemic Therapy for Adolescents From Families With Intellectual Disabilities

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is an intensive, evidence-based treatment aimed at preventing out-of-home placement of adolescents with severe behavioural problems. The intervention is home-based and focuses not only on the adolescent, but also on the various systems surrounding the adolescent, such as the family, neighbourhood, school, and friends. MST helps parents increase their parenting competencies such as parental monitoring and find (more) social support in their environment. MST also helps adolescents improve their relationship with their parents, school participation, and social activities, and promotes contact with pro-social peers. These goals are achieved by working together with key figures in the family's environment. MST treatment duration is three to five months. In MST, a family can contact a therapist 24/7.

Multisystemic therapy - intellectual disabilities (MST-ID) is a specialisation of standard MST (see above), tailored to the needs and skill deficits of families in which the adolescent and/or parent(s) has/have a known or suspected ID. In MST-ID, among others, simplified language and visual support are used, and extra attention is paid to the generalisation of what has been learned in the treatment sessions.