Personality disorder programme No longer a diagnosis of exclusion

The Leeds Multisystemic Therapy (MST) pilot, one of 10 in the country, was featured on BBC Radio Leeds Breakfast news programme http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00984wx/Martin_Kelner_and_Katherine_Hannah_13_08_2010/ on Friday August 13. Interviewers Martin Kelner and Katherine Hannah highlighted the four year project and interviewed a local family who say the approach has “worked wonders” with their son and “they would recommend it to anybody in their situation”.
During the news package the costs of the MST pilot in Leeds were compared with other alternatives: it costs Leeds City Council up to £8,000 per family for six months; to place one child into care cost £125,000 and to place one child into secure accommodation costs £134,000.
The MST programme offers a way forward in the treatment of young people who would otherwise probably end up offending or in care. Pilots up and down the country are finding that young people whose families are enrolled in Multisystemic therapy were less likely to re-offend than others who were given the usual support.