Troubled teens unsuccessful in traditional counseling environments are finding success in long-term treatment programs that provide parents with powerful alternative to boot camps for girls and boot camps for boys.
A study conducted by the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs found teens with serious emotional and behavioural issues including ADHD, depression, and oppositional defiant disorder, improved during treatment at a residential program and maintained their healthier outlook and functioning long after leaving the program.
“In our initial findings announced last year, teens with clinically impaired emotional and behavioural functioning were rated as ‘normal’ after a period of treatment at a private residential facility,” said Dr. Ellen Behrens, lead researcher at Canyon Research and Consulting.
“The analysis suggested that adolescent problems improve significantly during private residential treatment and that, with only a few exceptions, discharge functioning and in-treatment change are relatively similar, regardless of adolescent background, history, problems, and treatment factors.”
The study followed 1,027 adolescents, ages 13 to 18, for one year after discharge from a participating treatment program. The study focused on changes in a broad range of behavioral and emotional issues, including depression, anxiety, somatic complaints, thought or obsession problems, attention problems, rule-breaking behaviors, aggression and withdrawn behaviors.
“This is a landmark study for our industry,” said Jan Moss, executive director of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, an organization representing programs and professionals assisting adolescents with emotional and behavioral issues.
“Our member programs previously had to rely on anecdotal evidence and individual success stories as proof that their programs work. By championing evidenced-based practices, our industry can offer a proven option for parents considering private residential treatment for a troubled teen.”
[Gordon Hay is the Founder and Executive Director of Venture Academy, a residential treatment program for troubled teens.]
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About Gordon Hay
i agree that residential treatment and boarding schools for teens are a great option for troubled teens that have lost there way. If you the parent can find a boarding school that will meet the needs of your child and also not give the teen the option to self discharge thats a great stride in your favor. This is an excellent post on what these schools for teens can really provide. Great post.
Anyone even considering sending their child away for “”treatment” should read Maia Svalavitz's book How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids.
In this riveting and deeply troubling book, Maia Szalavitz shows that we don't have to go to Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo to find examples of harsh violations of human rights: frighteningly similar abuses are inflicted on American teenagers today, in programs ostensibly established to help them. Help At Any Cost vividly illuminates the human costs of these “treatment” programs, and the urgency of challenging their misleading claims before more of our children are irreparably harmed.
Elliott Currie, Ph.D., Professor Criminology, Law and Society, University of California-Irvine.
Ellen Behrens is a consultant to many so-called treatment programs, all part of a multi-million dollar industry with very little evidence-based research to support their outlandish claims. It is also no coincidence that a great many of these programs are located in the state of Utah, where the laws are particularly lenient with regards to detaining adolescents against their will. Most have been charged with no crime that would warrant incarcerations that are in many cases lengthier than those for adults who commit serious crimes.
This article sounds like a marketing ploy to me. I would be interested in what type of pre-testing and post-testing instruments were used. For example, were the subjects of the study pre-tested by administering thorough psychological testing such as MMPI, Rorschach testing, etc. by independent psychologists before admission to these programs and then were the same instruments utilized in the post-test to show this staggering result you mention. Love to hear the actual SCIENTIFIC evidence, methodologies, etc.
“Dan Dekker” is a shameless promoter of so called “therapeutic treatment programs”.
Call any of these programs. If you find one that has been accredited through the Council on Accreditation, use the program with confidence. And good luck cause you won't find one. Or review your decision with an impartial and qualified child psychologist, they will recoil in horror I assure you.
There are alternative way that you could consider aside from boot camps or residential treatment, one possible ways is with boarding school. Boarding school is an institution that gives/cater that support and guide them to develop their intellect, curiosity and creativity but also the school will help your child to build up her self-discipline and
decision making skills and abilities. Boarding school also help to have a proper intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual growth.
Don't close your option on considering boarding school for your troubled teens.
There are alternative way that you could consider aside from boot camps or residential treatment, one possible ways is with boarding school. Boarding school is an institution that gives/cater that support and guide them to develop their intellect, curiosity and creativity but also the school will help your child to build up her self-discipline and
decision making skills and abilities. Boarding school also help to have a proper intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual growth.
Don't close your option on considering boarding school for your troubled teens.
Residential treatment can make a big difference but do your research well before sending you child to a center. Our son is in a great program now but we originally sent him to a school in Salt Lake City, Utah and had a terrible experience. We were concerned that the school could not handle a boy with our son's issues (BPD traits) but they assured us that they could. Ten weeks later, they kicked him out of the program and abandoned him and us (his parents). They indicated that they didn't think he would still be having these BPD behavioral issues ten weeks into the program and couldn't work with him. If we had known he was only on a ten week trial program we certainly wouldn't have sent him to the school.
Not only did they kick him out but they abandoned him with no support leaving us to scramble to find another placement ASAP. He had a bad weekend and they took him to the emergency room to admit him to the hospital psych ward because they couldn't handle him. Then they called us up and said they wouldn't take him back and we needed to figure out where to send him. We live across the country and so we scrambled to find him alternatives, toured those alternatives and transferred him after about a week. When we picked our son up at the hospital we were shocked to find that they didn't even bring him a change of clothes or his glasses for the week he was in the psych ward. They didn't even call to consult with the Dr. to see how he was or if they could give some input. They offered no help to us in figuring out the next placement for our son.
This may be cynical but the school admitted our son when they had a lot of open beds and kicked him out when they were pretty full. Also, you would think they would at least compensate us for the extra expense we incurred to scramble to find him another placement plus part of the cost of the psych ward since he calmed down right away and the psych ward was just expensive baby sitting for the week. No…they didn't refund a dime beyond our deposit. They stuffed his dirty clothes in his bags, had us pick them up and said good riddance. The management at the school does not appear to care much about the kids they care for – at least not once they kick them out and stop getting paid.
A long explanation to say that you should ask a lot of questions prior to sending your kid to a residential center and check references. But…if you find a good place it is worth it!!
“The study followed 1,027 adolescents, ages 13 to 18, for one year after discharge from a participating treatment program.”
Mr. Hay, this statement is patently false. This work surveyed children at intake into these programs and before their release. There was never any post-program examination of these children and the proposed “one year follow up” described as “phase 2″ in the study was never done. You should check your facts more carefully or at least read the study you are holding out as valid, which it clearly is not.