PITT SPONSORS CONFERENCE ON REACHING OUT TO TROUBLED YOUTH Panel of Experts to Discuss New Intervention Method

PITTSBURGH, April 12 -- As the first anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy approaches, the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work is preparing to hold a one-day conference on a new intervention for troubled adolescents and teens, and how that treatment could be used in Allegheny County.

"Reaching Out To Troubled Youth" will be held on Friday, April 28, from 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m., at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, 4215 Fifth Avenue, across from Pitt's Cathedral of Learning. Its goal is to familiarize local social workers, family counselors, educators, and other professionals with multisystemic treatment (MST), a series of intensive home-based interventions that target multiple aspects of troubled youths' lives—peer groups, school, neighborhood, and family. Scott W. Henggeler, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, and the developer of MST, is the conference keynote speaker.

Henggeler will provide an overview of MST to conference attendees during the morning session. In the afternoon, a 10-member panel of distinguished local experts will respond to Henggeler's program. That will be followed by breakout sessions to discuss the relevance of such a program for Allegheny County. (A complete conference schedule is attached.)

According to Henggeler, MST programs are being used in 25 states, Canada and Norway. The intensive family-based treatment is an alternative to placing the young person in a boot camp or residential treatment center. Cost effective analyses published by the Washington State Institute on Public Policy have concluded that MST saves about $60,000 per youth in reduced crime victim costs, criminal justice expenses, and placements.

Henggeler received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia in 1977. He has published more than 170 journal articles, books and chapters and is on the editorial board of eight journals. Much of his research concerns serious antisocial behavior in adolescents and the development of clinically effective and cost effective treatments for such behavior.

"Reaching Out To Troubled Youth" is co-sponsored by the Center for Mental Health Services Research within Pitt's School of Social Work, the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, and Pittsburgh Public Schools "Safe Schools/Healthy Students" Project.

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NOTE TO EDITORS: This conference takes place 8 days after the Columbine anniversary. However, interviews with Pitt School of Social Work faculty or Scott W. Henggeler can be arranged prior to the conference or the anniversary by contacting Sharon Blake at 412-624-4364. Henggeler will also be available to the media at the conference, between 1:30 and 2:45 p.m.