Part II: Multisystemic Therapy: Addressing Racial Disparity and Its Effectiveness With Families From Diverse Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds

Abstract

Disparities in health and mental health care delivered to racial and ethnic minorities became a focus of national policy following reports of the Institute of Medicine (IOM, 2002) and the Surgeon General (USDHHS, 2001). The Surgeon General (USDHHS, 2001) reported racial and ethnic minorities experience disparities in availability and quality of mental health services compared to whites. Two challenges that intersect and compound each other are the disproportionately high numbers of African American children in child welfare with unmet mental health needs remaining in their homes or placed in relative's homes after a substantiation of child maltreatment (USDHHS, 2002) and the lack of culturally appropriate, effective home-based treatments available to them. This study compared outcomes for the youth who received Multisystemic Therapy (MST) controlling for the impact of race and ethnicity. The findings provide further evidence for child welfare practitioners to consider when working with children and families from diverse populations in decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• culturally responsive treatments
• EBP in child welfare
• families
• Multisystemic Therapy
• racial disparity
• social work

Notes

This article is the second in a series of two articles. The first was published in Journal of Family Social Work, Volume 12, Issue 1, pp. 73–92.