Breaking free from a gang lifestyle: The use of a solution‐determined collaborative team to help transform a challenging and complex adolescent case situation.

This article presents the use of a solution‐determined collaborative team approach as an adjunct to family therapy with Jorge, a 14‐year‐old, with a long history of gang involvement, anger management difficulties, fighting with students and poor academic performance, verbally abusive towards some of his teachers and other school personnel, marijuana and alcohol abuse, and was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The use of solution‐determined collaborative teams can be the antidote for working with chronic and complex case situations with many helping professionals and concerned members from a family's social network involved and/or when conflicts are occurring between parents and school staff and with other larger systems professionals. The case example demonstrates the advantages of the concurrent use of a solution‐determined collaborative team comprised of as many of the involved helping professionals as possible and the family's identified key resource people from their social network, which combined with family therapy can help optimize for treatment success. In addition to discussing the mechanics of recruiting solution‐determined collaborative team members and the role of the hosting therapist, clinical situations where using this team approach is contraindicated are covered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]