Our Out Of Home Care (OOHC) services in New Zealand support children and young people with disabilities, mental health disorders and youth justice, however, in the past this has not been specified in annual report information.
In the past 12 months we have supported 53 children and young people with high-level care, with 19 children and young people in the OOHC service. As an approved Child and Family Support Service Provider we hold a contract with the Ministry of Social Development to provide services to the Child Youth and Family agency via a care and protection pathway. Our placements range in length between a few weeks to several months. Around 25% of all referrals are for longer than 12 months.
During the year, Life Without Barriers New Zealand continued to offer training, clinical consultation, and quality assurance as a Licensed Multisystemic Therapy (MST) Network Partner to eight external Multisystemic Therapy provider teams in New Zealand. It is an evidence-based family and home-based treatment that aims to promote social behaviour and change how youth function in their natural settings, including home, school, and neighbourhood. The primary goals of MST are to reduce youth offending, reduce other types of anti-social behaviour such as drug and alcohol misuse, and to achieve these outcomes at a cost saving by decreasing rates of Out Of Home placement.
MST was first established in NZ in 2001 with three teams. Currently, there are eight teams, three of which are Alcohol and Other Drug specific. The MST intervention is delivered by a combination of government and not-for-profit agencies.
During the year under review, the teams worked with 239 families. At the end of treatment. Of these:
- 90% of youth were living at home
- 73% of youth were at school
- 77% of youth had no new arrests
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“I’m really enjoying it. We were in crisis before we (joined MST) and although only at Week 4, there is already a difference. (It) is a great fit for our family”. “At first I was sceptical ‘cause I like to keep family business in the family so it was hard to accept that we all needed help. When (MST) came and listened and I talked things through and realised that I was part of the problem, and that I needed to change what I was doing. I am forever grateful for the support.” “As an individual I’ve got a lot out of it and am really impressed that you don’t shut down at 5pm, that makes a huge difference especially in a crisis situation. It’s great that you come into the home and provide support, and I also love that you don’t need buy in from the youth”. |