Evaluation and Treatment Services

Evaluation and Treatment services begin with a diagnostic process of assessment, evaluation, and treatment of juvenile offenders and their families.  Initial screens are performed at entry into the juvenile justice system using valid and reliable risk/needs screens and assessments and provide key information that focuses future assessments and treatment.  The Structured Assessment of Violence Risk in Youth and Massachusetts Youth Screening Inventory are administered to screen for a variety of mental health, family, violence, delinquency, school, achievement, traumatic exposure, substance abuse, and other needs.  Once needs of juveniles are identified, therapeutic treatment is tailored to meet these needs.  This targeted approach ensures the right services for the right juvenile at the right time. 

Evaluation Services

Psychological and psychiatric evaluations are provided for juvenile offenders and their families.  Evaluations provide critical information on mental health, out-of-home placement options, and developmental disabilities.  This information is crucial to providing juveniles and family members with the most appropriate balance of supervision and intervention.  Evaluations are performed through contract providers include a variety of specifically focused evaluations, such as comprehensive substance abuse assessments, developmental disability assessments, mental illness assessments, medication assessments, sexual perpetrator assessments, and assessments for the appropriateness of out-of-home placements. 

Treatment Services

Treatment services target specific behaviors related to delinquency and are provided in a variety of ways.  Treatment services include:

• Ecological-Based Family Therapy
• Common Sense Parenting
• Project Loss and Survival of Trauma (Project LAST)
• Motivational Engagement
• Functional Family Therapy
• Functional Family Therapy - Child Welfare 
• Multi-Systemic Therapy
• Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
• Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
• Seeking Safety (Co-Occurring Trauma and Substance Use) 

Community-Based Referrals

A critical component of the therapeutic services is involvement in community-based services that are culturally sensitive and community centered.  In addition, such community-based services provide long-term, low cost services that supplement services provided by Juvenile Services.  Community-based services include both therapeutic and ancillary services that address individual needs of juvenile offenders and their families.