The BEACON project – Multisystemic Therapy for families
The BEACON project offers intensive therapy for families where children aged 6-17 years are at risk of going into care. A therapist works intensively with the whole family and systems around the family for 6 to 9 months, and families are offered 24/7 on-call support. Therapists are supported by their supervisor and wider team, including specialist mental health expertise and external consultation from Multisystems Therapy-UK & Ireland (MST-UK&I).
The aim is to increase safety for children, enhance parenting skills, repair relationships between parents or carers and children and address underlying issues for adults and children, including past trauma and substance abuse.
The YEF and MST-UK&I have been working closely together on the first stage of a feasibility study to find out if it would be possible to undertake a robust impact evaluation of MST-CAN implementation in England and Wales. With that now complete, we’re now moving onto the next stage of the study. Here we’ll continue to collaborate with MST UK &I and their evaluator to learn more about what’s needed to robustly evaluate their programme, and to examine the feasibility of reaching and supporting the number of families required for a large-scale impact evaluation.