Juvenile Gaps: Agency Miscounts Need for Community & Residential Services

March 2009 In this study, Advocates for Children and Youth (ACY) presents its analysis of the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services (DJS) gap analysis released in March 2009. ACY said DJS underestimated the need for multisystem therapy (MST) and functional family therapy (FFT). ACY says DJS misused a risk assessment instrument, the Washington State Juvenile Court Assessment. In addition, DJS failed to distinguish between need for MST and FFT despite the programs' differences. DJS failed to consider regional needs for MST; capacity in one region of the state is not accessible by youth in other regions. In addition, DJS overestimated . . .