Troubled Teens Resources

Parents researching schools for troubled teens have their work cut out for them. May we suggest that you listen to this Teen Options podcast that will give you a good start in organizing your search.

As you peruse the internet you will run into different reports about various youth institutions throughout the country. As usual, the press sensationalizes incidents of possible abuse, failing to sing the praises of the many youths that have had their lives turned around by time spent in a troubled teen program.

The article excerpted below is more balanced than most, touching on possible problems as well as recognizing the good that this youth ranch has achieved.

“Mount Carmel Youth Ranch is a group home where troubled boys ages 12 to 17 from around the country spend from three weeks to 18 months living and working on a 40,000-acre cattle ranch.
[…]
Boys must first enroll in the ranch’s wilderness program, where they live in a rustic cabin with few amenities and no running water.

For three months, they earn credit for good behavior toward greater privileges before moving to the long-term bunkhouse, a more traditional group setting.
[…]

Activities, which also earn school credit, include such ranch chores as mending fences and delivering calves.”

(source)

Parents need to do the same thorough research regarding programs for their teens as they would were they investing in a business or real estate. Sound direction and good counsel is readily available for diligent and conscientious parents.

Parents who bite the bullet and take the necessary steps to stop their troubled teens plunge into drugs are to be commended. It is a hard road to begin walking down, but the ultimate consequences of denial are far more painful.

The downward spiral for the drug addicted teen is rapid. One day your teen is the same old great kid and the next day a sullen and disrespectful teen replaces him. Or so it seems. But drug use escalates other dangerous behavior. Promiscuous and careless sex that can result in disease or pregnancy. Failed grades or expulsion from school will leave a teen without a secure path to the future. Drug deals gone bad can result in a teen being busted or worse, dead.

So when parents finally heed all the warning signs, they are ready to start researching some long term solutions for their teen. But where do you begin when tracking down schools for troubled teens?

Teen Options offers a very helpful podcast that gives parents a good overview at what to look for in schools and programs and how to narrow your choices down to those institutions that will meet your teen’s needs.

Here are a few suggested questions to ask prospective schools with the complete list to be found at the link below.

• Can you take a teen if they don’t want to stay?
• Can the teen get kicked out?
• What must they do to get kicked out?
• Do you take aggressive teens?
• What are the program age ranges?
• Are boys and girls kept separate? How?
• What types of financing do you have?
• What contact do parents have with teen?

(Teen Options)