Troubled Teens Resources

Teen age drug abuse can be fought using huge sweeping media campaigns, such as the barrage of anti-meth commercials and programs sweeping across many states in the West, or, it can be fought by making six beds available to teen meth users crippled by their addiction. All efforts, small or large, are critical in fighting this particularly insidious drug.

So this Salvation Army’s outreach of six beds here and another dozen here may not seem like much, they are just as valuable as multi-million dollar ad campaigns for the troubled teens whose lives are impacted.

“The Salvation Army in Victoria, BC has opened a new residential treatment program for drug-addicted youth.

Beacon of Hope House is located in the manse of St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Victoria West, and it has room six male addicts, each with his own bedroom. Two staff members are on duty at all times, so that supervision is continuous, and clients are not allowed outside without accompanying staff.

The Salvation Army hopes to have a similar facility for females within eighteen months.”
(source)

Unlike other drugs, meth can take it’s addictive grip rapidly. And the downward spiral of the addict is just as rapid. More to the point, recovery is a very hard for the meth addict to maintain. Programs like that above are necessary because they offer the addict a means to separate themselves from their addiction while gaining ways and strength to fight it once they are out of treatment.

“They’ve given quilts to men and women in the military, victims of Hurricane Katrina, 13 staffers at the center and Ashley Zauflik, the 17-year-old Falls girl seriously injured in a school bus crash earlier this year. They’ve also made quilted pillowcases for patients at Doylestown Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and nearly 300 tissue holders for Neshaminy Manor, the county-run nursing home.”

“They” in this case would be young boys,troubled teens serving in a mandatory residential treatment program for crimes and drug related problems.

The experience holds forth a basic principle that teen behavioral programs emphasize in troubled teen boarding schools, boot camps and other programs directed on teaching adolescents to re-invent their lives. It summons a number of skills and attitudes that teens may have not yet experienced.

“I thought it was corny,” said a 15-year-old boy who was committed to the center’s residential treatment program four months ago.

But he and the other teens say quilting teaches focus and teamwork and, perhaps more importantly, donating their handiwork earns them recognition and boosts their self-esteem.”

(Source)
One young man hits the nail on the head.

“..making quilts for sick kids or soldiers in Iraq, it feels good. It’s serving a purpose.”

A troubled teen needs to have a sense of purpose which comes from learning that their life has value and much to offer. It is a lesson that needs to be taught in teen boot camps and wilderness therapies simply because it is so infrequently taught at home.

Does your teen have a sense of purpose?

They park their gang colours at the door, handing over bandanas from the Crips and Bloods and Gators to teachers every morning to put in a drawer, then getting them back at the end of the day in case they need them for protection going home.

That is the opening paragraph of an encouraging story about a troubled teen program being conducted in Canada.

It reminded me of a friend who worked for a very small, experimental troubled teen boarding school. It was actually a micro study of teen behavioral therapies that resulted in substantial progress for the subject teenagers. The troubled teen population numbered only 40 and every one of the teens housed there came from gangs from several states away. All were far from home and any possible triggers. Outside those walls they were sworn enemies. Inside those walls, they became the teenagers that drugs and gang warfare had all but obliterated.

And so it is in this “last chance saloon for students.”

Members of three different gangs are enrolled in this class of 16; sitting together over breakfast cereal, learning Grade 9 math together, washing lunch dishes side by side and playing afternoon “ice-breaker” games that get them talking about feelings that sometimes boil over.

“When I’m out on the street, sure I’ll talk to someone from this class who’s in another gang,” says one student. “It’s all about respect.

“If I respect them here, why wouldn’t I respect them on the street?”

My friend normally observed these teens behind a one way glass in her part-time capacity as monitor and athletic trainer.I recall her being so profoundly moved by the transformations of these young men and women from hard, brazen punks to expectant young people with an interest in living, creating and excelling.

It is simply heartening to see the same results replicated in Canada.

Aaron eye’s were sparkling and his posture was different too. Gone was the “Pose” as Carol called it - the attitude slouch of boredom, the swaggering gait of defiance. He stood tall, alert, as if his body was circulating a new potent mix of blood and vitality.

Aaron had been at military school for almost 6 weeks and Carol could finally heave a sigh of relief. She and her husband had poured over brochures and internet sites when looking for a teen residential treatment program for their troubled teen. Boarding schools, military schools, wilderness treatment programs, at-risk teen brat camps! At one point they felt so overwhelmed with their research they jokingly mused over the hope of finding a treatment program for parents of troubled teens.

But looking at Aaron now, Carol realized that the fruit of their hard work was represented in the obvious progress that their at-risk teen now exhibited. They had, indeed, chosen the right boarding school.

If you are a parent of a troubled teen and you are buried in research trying to decide which teen boarding school or military school offers the right combination of therapies for your at-risk teen, please feel confident that you and your teen will benefit greatly from your efforts.

Here are ten points to consider when searching for the right boarding school for your troubled teen.

1) Ask about the boarding school’s success rates.
2) Talk with some parents with a teen in the program.
3) Take a tour of the troubled teen programs you are considering.
4) Don’t base your decision on either pure emotion or logic.
5) Don’t tell yourself that ignoring the problem will make it go away.
6) If it isn’t working, stop doing it!
7) Understand that you don’t always get what you pay for.
Look for a program that involves the whole family.
9) Don’t tell your child you are going to put them in a treatment program
10) Remember that just because you have a troubled teen doesn’t mean that you are a bad parent.

For more details, read further here.

There are so many ways for a troubled teen to harm themselves, so many negative influences that a parent has to be aware of that, often times, a beleaguered parent is well advised to seek a residential treatment program at a teen boarding school. At an accredited boarding school, at least the parent can trust that a trained professional can attack the debilitating depression and desperation that hound the at-risk teen on an even playing field, away from all the seductions of drug abuse and the attendant ills that accompany addictions.

Listen to this cry for help.

“i cut myself and i cant stop. i do it every day. and i love the feeling but i know its wrong. i cant do it anymore, but i have to. PLEASE HELP ME.”
(Source)

Could you answer that question if your struggling teen were to cry out to you? Not many parents can. That is, however, the type of questions mental health experts and treatment counselors at a brat camp or military school can address.

As a parent of a struggling teen you are dealing with life and death issues and no matter how competent you are in your given field, no matter your education, a parent is wise to defer to the experts that can be found in a reputable teen boarding school.

There are many a weary parent who could relate to the distress that Britney Spears has put her family through with continuing relapses into self-abusive and addicted behavior. It is unfortunate that the first stint at rehab the troubled teen undergoes doesn’t always end in success - such is the pernicious hold drug addiction has on it’s users.

While considering a boarding school or other residential treatment program, the last thing a parent needs to hear is that it might not be enough. It is not a commentary on the effectiveness of boot camps or boarding schools but a testament to how thoroughly addiction becomes part of addict’s life.

“In fact, the Partnership For A Drug Free America sums it up this way: “To be sure, some people can quit drug use ‘cold turkey,’ or they can quit after receiving treatment just one time at a rehabilitation facility. But most of those who abuse drugs require longer-term treatment and, in many instances, repeated treatments.”

The severity of the addiction determines whether or not the abuser is given treatment as an outpatient or as participant in a residential program. Residential programs are extremely effective for those with severe addiction because they intensify the amount of treatment the participant receives on a daily basis.”

The excerpts above are from a Fox News piece - well worth the read - that goes over the differences between residential treatment programs available at brat camps and boarding schools and the alternative of choosing an outpatient therapy program. Often a parent’s choice is dictated by finances and other
variables. However, with all of the resources on the internet as well as assistance obtained from their teen’s school counselors and therapist, parents will discover that they will be very well prepared to choose which boarding school or treatment program best serves their troubled teen.