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June 28, 2002
A New Kind of Therapy
 (CBS)
Matthew Benton’s problems started in middle school: marijuana,
shoplifting, cutting class. Then Matthew, 15, broke into a
neighbor’s apartment, stole checks, and bought cocaine. His parents
were furious, and so he ran away from home.
He’s on probation, and
running away could mean jail.
Matthew Benton
Both his parents, Susie and
Joe, are teachers, and they feel like failures. They used to think
of themselves as good parents. "We kind of thought that if you were
good people and you modeled good things, set good examples, loved
your children, that they would be okay," says Susie, "But it doesn't
always work out that way."
Matthew admits that he has
been smoking marijuana and cocaine, spending $150 a week on drugs.
He gets the money, he says, from stealing, mostly from his parents.
So far, nothing's gotten through: Not jail time, not therapy, not
even an expensive wilderness boot camp.
 So
now his parents are trying a new treatment program. 42-year-old
Jackie Conyers is a counselor in this innovative and intense
treatment program, which Charleston's courts can order for their
toughest cases.
“Boot camps don’t really
work for kids,” says Jackie. “Because you have other kids in boot
camps who are negative peers. And when you say throw the kid in jail
for 24 hours, 48 hours, what are you doing? You’re throwing them in
with kids who have been in similar situations as themselves. So
that’s not helping.”
Jackie Conyers is a counselor in
an innovative and intense treatment
program for problem kids. (Photo: CBS)
Those programs change
nothing at home, which is what Jackie plans to do. The program is
called Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), and its results are amazing.
Studies show that a year after completing MST, kids have 40 percent
fewer arrests than kids in comparable programs. And while locking an
offender up cost the state $40,000 a year, MST averages only $5500.
The key to changing
behavior, Jackie says, is intensive work, not just with the kids,
but with every influence in their lives: their neighbors, teachers,
friends, and especially their parents.
Often, Jackie says, parents
are surprised to find out how much effort goes into changing their
behavior, not their kids’.
For the next 6 months,
Jackie will be in the Benton's home nearly every day.
Joe admits that he and his
wife have been too “wishy-washy” with their son. No more: together,
Joe, Susie and Jackie draft a no-nonsense behavior plan for Matthew
and for themselves.
Now, Matthew will submit to
random drug tests. Now, if he breaks a rule, he pays a price. For
minor violations, like being rude, he might lose TV or phone
privileges. Major violations could mean jail time.
Compliance can earn rewards:
a movie, or perhaps a visit with a friend. The key is consistency,
which was lacking in the past. “We want to work on not letting him
slide,” says Jackie.
The Bentons are encouraged
when Matthew obligingly signs the contract. But jail is his only
other option, and Jackie thinks she's seen this act before.
“I was watching his facial
expression as his mom was reading through the behavior contract. I
could just see that you know in his mind he’s going yeah in your
dreams,” says Jackie.
In fact, the not so sweet
side of Matthew was obvious as soon as the terms of the contract
were laid out. It happened right after a therapy session on his
parents wedding anniversary. He'd already admitted he stole checks
to buy drugs, but swore no one else was involved.
"I saw the checks that were
written and not all the signatures on those checks are Matt’s. Two
of the checks were signed with a very different handwriting from the
other checks," says Susie.
Jackie tells them to
confront their son. When they do, he reacts angrily, refusing to
tell them who else was involved. The confrontation ends without him
revealing anything.
The next time he and his
parents go before the judge, Joe and Susie didn’t mention that he
has lied.
While Matthew is happy,
Jackie is very disappointed. Mortified that the confrontation
happened in front of TV cameras, Susie seems to feel that was
punishment enough for Matt.
Says Jackie: “These parents
want to make sure that Matt’s happy and Matt still loves them and
doesn’t think THEY'RE these terrible people. So it’s going to be
challenging job on my part to help them see that your child will
still love you even though you’re enforcing rules and being the
parent you need to be.”
Jackie says there have to be
consequences for actions, or the therapy won’t work.
“It’s almost like he’s the
parent, you’re the kids. And we need to flip that role around,”
Jackie tells Susie.
“Well, it is very often that
he’s in charge,” Susie admits.
The Bentons reluctantly
agree and go back before the judge, who, when the lying is exposed,
sends Matthew to detention for 48 hours. He says he is shocked: “I
didn't think I was going to go to jail for lying to my parents.”
Two weeks later, at home,
now he's on his best behavior. Jail, Jackie thinks, effectively made
the point that MST is serious: actions will have consequences.
Joe and Susie say their son
has been much better. Matt has been so well behaved that his parents
haven't had to do much enforcing. They say thanks to MST, they've
gone from wishy-washy to determined.
Matthew is "a work in
progress," Jackie says, but the emphasis now is on progress: “His
words say I want to do the right thing. His actions are saying I
want to do the right thing. But we'll see.” The process, she says,
takes a long time.
(Link to Dr. Ruth's website: http://www.ruthpeters.com/)
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