Comprehensive community-based interventions for youth with severe emotional disorders: Multisystemic therapy and the wraparound process

Two comprehensive community-based interventions for youth with severe emotional disorders are contrasted and compared. The interventions are multisystemic therapy (MST)—a brief but intensive, clinician-provided, and home-based treatment; and wraparound—a long-term approach to planning and coordinating the provision of both formal and informal services in the community. Both approaches are spreading rapidly across the country. As this occurs, it is important for families, clinicians, and policymakers to have sufficient information to understand the requirements and the research base for each. This paper provides a description of both MST and wraparound across multiple dimensions (i.e., origin, theory, target population, principles, role of family, cultural competence, staffing, training, quality monitoring, costs, and the evidence base). The respective similarities and differences are discussed and options for utilizing both for selected youth and families who require intensive and long-term care are explored briefly.