New Hope Treatment Centers Adds MST Services

Rock Hill, S.C., June 7, 2024 – New Hope Treatment Centers is taking the next step in becoming a community based Rehabilitative Behavioral Health Services provider in South Carolina, in addition to being one of the state’s largest residential providers.

That next step is the addition of MST (Multi-Systemic Therapy) services to our service array. MST Services and New Hope have partnered together to make this happen, bringing help to families who are in desperate need all throughout York County, South Carolina.

MST is an evidence-based practice that focuses on empowering parents and caregivers and improving their skills, shaping the home environment to better support their adolescent who is struggling with behaviors at home, school and in the community.

Expanding outside the walls of our PRTF in Rock Hill, New Hope will be serving youth ages 12-17 and their families directly in their home and community. The model of bringing our services to them will be a first for the company. The MST team will also be on-call 24/7 so that we can intervene and de-escalate crisis situations whenever they happen and avoid police involvement. With MST, we will take families who are on the brink of their youth being sent to a residential program and help turn things around.

Thanks in large part due to the full support and leadership of South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Kerr and Behavioral Health Director Melanie Hendricks, New Hope will become one of the first billable SC Medicaid MST providers in the state.

“My first job out of grad school was as an MST Therapist in rural North Carolina and I loved every second of it,” said COO Matt Simon, MA, LMFT. “The small caseloads allowed me to join with my families in ways that I don’t think any other service offers. I saw firsthand as a brand-new therapist the power that the MST model has to completely turn around an entire family’s story. Kids on the brink of a life of juvenile justice involvement and out of home placement became thriving, functional, successful family units again. It was incredible. So, when the opportunity presented itself for New Hope to become one of the first providers in South Carolina to adopt MST after SC DHHS made this an official Medicaid-eligible service, it was a no brainer for us”.

Over the course of the next few months, New Hope will be hiring an MST Supervisor and the first two MST Therapists with the plan to employ four in total and an ultimate goal of serving kids beginning in the fall.

There will be roughly 20 kids being served on any given day through this program. This represents a huge evolution in our mission, getting further upstream and starting to actually prevent residential services before they’re even needed. New Hope only wants to see youth in residential services who absolutely need it. And we whole heartedly believe every possible intervention should be tried with a family before a youth is removed from the home. This is rare for a PRTF but we are truly hoping by adding MST services, we will actively deter families from ever even needing to pursue our residential services.

“Our flagship program, New Hope Carolinas PRTF, sits right in the heart of York County and we have been hearing for years from families and stakeholders about the need for more high intensity, community-based services in this community,” said Simon. “Too many youths in York County bounce from outpatient therapy straight to residential without that key middle option of a high intensity treatment that comes to the home and is on call 24/7 in the case of a crisis. MST is coming to help fill that gap. We applaud Secretary Kerr and Director Hendrix for their leadership and drive in bringing this service to South Carolina and expanding it out to all Medicaid families in our state. South Carolina is evolving and making moves to serve families better, and so is New Hope. Let’s go!”

For more info on the MST model, click here.

About New Hope

Since our opening in 1987, New Hope Treatment Centers has been a welcoming place for young people in moments of crisis. Our programs have played a role in countless success stories, thanks to our relational approach to behavioral care. We get to know our kids on an individual level, and work with them and their families toward a brighter next chapter. We believe that positive, empowering, and healthy relationships are the key to changing young lives that have been impacted by childhood trauma. At New Hope, the drive is simple: change the world, one kid at a time, through the healing power of relationships. Our people show up every day, passionate about changing young people’s lives. It’s our name and our promise: new hope for every kid who comes through our doors.