Troubled Teens Resources

Thinking about a teen crisis intervention for your troubled teen? What are you going to do after you confront your teen about their problem? What type of treatment do they need? Well there is a new option for parents of teen boys ages 13-17 in Austin, TX. This program of individualized therapy offers a different type of help for teens.

“‘Every teenage boy we work with has an individualized program created to best suit their personal needs to foster a positive environment. Our programs have been developed to enhance all areas of each troubled teen lives and help them learn to adapt to situations where they need additional help. Resolution Ranch strives to help troubled teens build stronger relationships in their communities as well as to succeed in life,- states Neal Staab, Administrator of Resolution Ranch.
Resolution Ranch’s 12 Step Program offers a spiritual focus to help troubled teens learn respect, build character and confidence. Each boy works through the 5 levels of achievement until they are ready to resume their lives in the outside world with strengthened coping capabilities.
At Resolution Ranch teens develop positive self-evaluation and introspection skills. At each learning level, boys take part in an activity or response writing that is read and evaluated by a counselor. As Level 1 Ranch Hands new boys learn respect, awareness and honesty. Level 2 Cattle Men focus on learning goal setting, confidence and responsibility. Level 3 Ropers learn humility, resolve and character building. Level 4 Wranglers work on helpfulness, relationship building, dealing with change, and making amends. Level 5 Cowboys learn about hope, affirmation and commitment.
As each boy works on his individual goals, feedback from the group builds confidence and commitment to recovery. Group therapy sessions allow feelings to be openly expressed in a nurturing environment. A “group” can be called at any time by any member of the community. Peer affirmation and evaluation helps teens counter negative behaviors and reinforce positive behaviors.”

If you are looking for help for a troubled teen visit

this link.
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Are middle school age adolescents vulnerable to the attraction of gangs? Does it really start so young? Yes, unfortunately, most teen crisis intervention has to start well before a child enters his teens, in fact, pre-teens are as vulnerable to the cultural hype as their high school counterparts. That’s why new programs for troubled teens about gang recruitment now are aimed at middle school.

“The presence of Tracy’s Gang Task Force at Monte Vista Middle School on Tuesday morning was akin to putting out a grass fire before it becomes an inferno, officials said.

While officers said that the school was far from being a hotbed of gang activity, they were quick to note that middle school years are when students are most vulnerable to being recruited by a gang.

“This is the time when they start seeing it and it starts to become normal to them. The real danger is when they feel that joining a gang is the normal thing to do,” said officer Ricardo Hernandez. “We want to get the message to them now before they hit the high school level.”

The presentation included detailed photos of gang activity and members, a drug dog demonstration and stark descriptions of what that lifestyle is really all about.

“It really hits them when they start seeing pictures of gang members here in Tracy,” Hernandez said. “Then they realize it is happening all around them and not just on television.”
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Teen crisis intervention via positive peer pressure is an effective method of teen help employed in many schools for troubled teens, with very good results. It is also employed, in various forms, throughout the country’s public schools via various programs - Teen Court being one most parents have heard of.

When a teen helps their peers by apprising them of the dangers of drug use, they are going to find themselves meeting with some opposition and hostility, but their efforts are valuable and commendable. That is how positive peer pressure is being deployed by Safe Teens Empowerment Project in one California middle school.

“That is going to be our target population,” said Badon. “Alcohol is available in many of these children’s homes, so they actually get alcohol just by tapping into the parent’s alcohol supply. Marijuana is available, too. If you are a middle school kid you can get marijuana from high school kids. So, these are not adult predators giving drugs to these young kids, they know how to get it.”

Participants in the program will also be present at DUI check points and participate in peer mediation. They needn’t be honor students to participate. The idea is to get a body of students that can relate to the many teen groups that they will encounter.

” Lisette Hernandez… said she wished she had a friend pull her aside to help steer her away from substance abuse…She admitted that she might not have listened at first to friends who didn’t drink or use drugs.

“But, there is always something that is going to stick in your head, maybe not today, but later on,” she said.”
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Parents who are concerned that their teen or child may have Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder will be doing a great deal of research and will run into much conflicting information. The online site ADDitude publishes a great deal of useful information that can help parents evaluate their own son or daughter’s potential ADD. They offer a list of “myths” associated with the disorder. The complete list can be found at the link below.

• Children who are given special accommodations because of their ADHD are getting an unfair advantage

  The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that public schools address the special needs of all children with disabilities, including children with ADHD. Special accommodations, such as extra time on tests, simply level the playing field so that kids with ADHD can learn as successfully as their non-ADHD classmates.

• Children with ADHD eventually outgrow their condition
  
  More than 70 percent of the individuals who have ADHD in childhood continue to have it in adolescence. Up to 50 percent will continue to have it in adulthood.

  Although it’s been estimated that 6 percent of the adult population has ADHD, the majority of those adults remain undiagnosed, and only one in four of them seek treatment. Yet, without help, adults with ADHD are highly vulnerable to depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. They often experience career difficulties, legal and financial problems, and troubled personal relationships.

• ADHD affects only boys

  Girls are just as likely to have ADHD as are boys, and gender makes no difference in the symptoms caused by the disorder. But because this myth persists, boys are more likely to be diagnosed than girls.

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Teen crisis intervention begins at home and it begins with parents. Parents who do not assume the responsibilities of adulthood will experience some intervention themselves. Troubled teens require mature adults to raise them, not teenage wanna-bes trying to be buddies with their kids. So any parent that is thinking how hip they are to host drinking parties for their teenagers might want to reconsider their view.

“A Deerfield man will report to the Lake County Jail this week, to begin two weeks of work-release — because he allowed his son to host a teenaged drinking party that turned deadly.

With homecoming weekends at hand for high schools across the metropolitan area, police, prosecutors and advocates are hoping it serves as a warning.

Jeffrey Hutsell seemed to many, including friends and associates, as one of the least likely people to go to jail.

The 53-year-old Hutsell is an entrepreneur known for his years of charitable giving and community service to his church and community, working with the victims of Hurricane Katrina and on volunteer projects as far away as Guatemala and Africa.

But Lake County (Ill.) State’s Attorney Michael Waller said a night of “appallingly bad judgment” last Oct. 13, that ended in the deaths of two 18-year-old partygoers, stained that reputation.

“(Jail) time in this particular case sends a message and it will deter others doing what these defendants did,” he said.”

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It is amazing how much teen crisis intervention needs to be directed at advertisers. If it isn’t the fashion industry trying to dress pre-teens to look like call girls in training, it is the alcohol industry packaging their alcohol products specifically to entice troubled teens.

Of course, the alcohol industry is in denial but parents better not be. Recent surveys have spelled out clearly that too many parents condone teen drinking with predictably disastrous results. The problem is not endemic to America but global, reported in England, Scotland, the Netherlands, and in this instance, Australia.

“The alcohol industry has long denied it but new figures prove that teenagers at high risk of injury or death through binge drinking prefer pre-mixed “alcopops” over other drinks.

Previously unreleased Federal Government findings show that 14 to 19-year-olds who drink at dangerous levels choose spirits-based, ready-to-drink (RTD) stubbies or cans.
[…]
Community Alcohol Action Network director Geoff Munro said it was time the industry “faced its responsibilities”.

“These figures prove that RTDs are consumed by the riskiest drinkers and pose an immediate threat to the health and wellbeing of teenagers around Australia,” he said. “Some single cans contain almost three standard drinks, which means young people get drunk quickly. Thousands of teenagers are admitted to hospital after overdosing on alcohol each year. Some suffer permanent brain damage, and some die, yet the industry is increasing the strength of drinks favoured by the youngest binge drinkers.”

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Related:
Troubled Teen Binge Drinkers Targeted by Alcohol Advertisers

The most critical tool for teen crisis intervention with troubled teens is knowledge. That means that parents need to equip themselves with information that will enable them to identify when a teen is high, identify illegal substances, be aware if any particular drug is making headlines in their town. For instance, parents in Texas are on the look out for cheese heroin and _. Montanans need top be very wary of meth and Northeasterners are seeing heroin slowly making inroads.

A lot of information is available on the internet and indeed, that is where your teen is getting his. But what if you are monitoring your teen’s online activities but you have run into an unexpected language barrier. Enter NetLingo.com - the parents guide to the arcane teen languages used in the digital world.

• 95% of parents didn’t recognize the lingo kids use to let people know that their parents are watching
• 89% of sexual solicitations are made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages
• 20% of children age 10-17 have received unwanted sexual solicitations online; that’s one out of every five kids
• 75% of youth who received an online sexual solicitation did not tell a parent
• 81% of parents of online youth say that kids aren’t careful enough when giving out information about themselves online
• 76% of parents don’t have rules about what their kids can do on the computer
• 65% of parents believe that kids do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents to know about
• 4,000,000 children are posting content to the Web everyday
• 15,000,000 youth use Instant Messaging

NetLingo.com

Teen crisis intervention projects sometimes show up in the oddest places. The imagination behind some of these efforts to reach troubled teenagers are admirable. They are created by private citizens and non-profits in various communities nationwide. Citizens who put their money and action where their mouths are. No platitudes and yearning for an answer to drugs. Just very practical and effective programs that hit the ground running. The Blue Sky Project is going after teen depression.

Most everyone is familiar with craigsList, the ubiquitous cyber bulletin board where all and sundry can find something or someone. craigList’s most prodigious users are the teenagers and college students that Dr. Michael Bagby is looking to reach.

“…mental-health researchers are turning to the Internet to look for teen subjects. At Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, doctors posted on craigslist.org to recruit teenagers for a five-year study on first episodes of major, or clinical, depression called the Blue Sky Project.

The idea of navigating the grown-up world of psychologists and psychiatrists is terrifying to many teenagers, says Maria Luisa Contursi, mindyourmind.caproject manager.”Kids are afraid of bricks and mortar,” she says. “They’re not sure what’s behind that door.”
[…]
Hoping to attract students while they are searching for used bikes or second-hand furnishings for university dorm rooms, Dr. Bagby’s posting seeks people who are having trouble concentrating and getting out of bed in the morning.”

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When most people hear teen crisis intervention their first thought is about teen age drug abuse. Teens are at risk of more than just drug abuse these days, suicide , physical abuse from a boyfriend/girlfriend, parent or other family member can lead to the need for a crisis intervention. The number of teen suicides and drug abuse cases is something parents need to pay attention to.

The warning signs of drug abuse are easier to see most of the time compared to more emotional issues a teen might be having. Every teen is different and each parent is different but, that does not change the fact that teens are at a greater risk for suicide and drug abuse. Most teens do not know how to handle some of the things that happen in life and they don’t know where or how to ask for help.

Parents can help their teen by just watching and listening to start with, let your teen know that you are there for them. Let them know if they mess up you will be upset but, that’s okay you will deal with it and move on. Parents need to set aside time to spend with their teens, find out who their friends are, what their teen does when their not around. Knowing your teen and who your teen spends their time with will give you the best view of your teen and what they are doing. Being involved in your teens life means more than making demands to know everything they are doing at all times or rummaging through their drawers. If you start with a solid base relationship where your teen feels they can come to you for anything, they are more likely to stay out of trouble, or if they do get into trouble your teen may trust you enough and come to you for help.

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Teen crisis intervention may amount to doing nothing at all. As we have all seen, a teenager hell bent on destroying their life does not take kindly to criticism or advice. Be it a teenager or an adult, an addict who hasn’t hit bottom yet is likely to keep on using until they do.

The troubled teenager who wrote the following seems to recognize the importance of consequences, even though he has yet to
hit bottom, he seems to understand that will be the only lesson he’ll understand.

“Don’t let your love and anxiety for me lead you into doing what I ought to do for myself….

Don’t accept my promises, I’ll promise anything to get off the hook. But the nature of my illness prevents me from keeping promises, even though I mean them at the time.

Don’t make empty threats. Once you have made a decision, stick to it.

Don’t believe everything I tell you, it may be a lie. Denial of reality is a symptom of my illness. Moreover, I’m likely to lose respect for those I can fool too easily.

Don’t let me take advantage of you or exploit you in any way. Love cannot exist for long without the dimension of justice.

Don’t cover up for me or try in any way to spare me the consequences of my drinking and using. Don’t lie for me, pay my bills, or meet my obligations. It may avert or reduce the very crisis that would prompt me to seek help. I can continue to deny that I have a drinking and using problem as long as you provide an automatic escape from the consequences of my drinking/using.”

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