At 15, Jodie* was spending a lot of her time smoking cannabis with friends. She was drinking heavily too, and refusing to go to school.
When the family was offered an intervention called multisystemic therapy (MST), she was reluctant at first. But MST therapist Katie Vincent won her round and started an intensive programme involving both Jodie and her parents.
As part of the treatment, Vincent set up a reward system, administered by Jodie's parents. They carried out a drugs screening test every week on a urine sample Jodie provided and she was rewarded each time the test showed she had not smoked cannabis that week. She could spend the "points" she earned on items such as phone credit, iTunes vouchers and cinema and bowling trips.
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