Troubled Teens Resources

With the economy struggling like it is, finding affordable help for a troubled teen can be a difficult task.  The least expensive placement options for a troubled teen begin at $2,500 per month.   For parents that have difficulty financing such a venture there are some alternative options they can try. One good option for younger children up to about 12 or 13 years old is a scared straight type program.  It is designed to empower parents by allowing their child to watch a DVD of a drill Sergeant.  This is been successful in motivating younger people to improve their behaviors.  It can be found at http://www.bootcampvideo.com/ .

There are other options parents can try on their own prior to sending their child away.  Some parents have had success using what is referred to as a ‘home contract”.  This is just what it sounds like, a contract between the parents and their child.  The parents negotiate an agreement with their child about what time they will come home, who they will hang out with, what kind of grades they will get, and drug testing is usually in the mix.  Both parties sign it and the teen understands and agrees what will happen if he doesn’t comply with the agreement.  Some parents will use this prior to placing their teen in a program for troubled teens.

There is another great option for parents that do not want to send their teen away to receive help.  It is advertised on television and is a very effective option.  The Total Transformation program can be purchased by following this link.  The program is guaranteed to work and you can actually try the program for $19.95 risk free!  If you have a troubled or defiant teen or child and want to try something that will help; give this a try.

Give a drug dealer training and a job. A novel approach and what could be a positive intervention against the flow of illegal drugs. Corner drug dealers are a common sight in almost any urban neighborhood. The tragic consequences of the constant drug trade usually become the daily headlines in local newspapers as shootings and gang war become regular reports. Providence, R.I. is employing a unique program to change that.

“The police start by going after the street-level drug dealers and their hierarchy in the worst drug-plagued area, or “beachhead.” The next step is unusual: The police select a few nonviolent offenders, the dealers who are young and have the potential to be rehabilitated. Instead of arresting them, the police give the dealers a second chance and turn them over to the community groups, such as the Urban League, which provide jobs, education and counseling.

The approach encourages the community to trust the police, Kennedy said, which leads residents to work with the police to prevent more drug dealers from returning. The dealers with a second chance serve as an example to the younger generation.
[…]
“We were open to it because we were tired of being a narcotics-arresting machine,” said Esserman, who knew Kennedy from when the professor was at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. “And there’s something compelling about a second chance.” The Urban League of Rhode Island was eager to try it. “It seemed like an opportunity to transform the neighborhood,” said Luis Aponte, an administrator at the Urban League and a Providence city councilman. “The conditions were also ripe. We had the presence of a police chief who demonstrated the willingness to work with the community, and the Urban League was often called in to be a conduit between the Police Department and the community.”
(Source)

Intervention in the current teenage drug crisis engulfing small towns and cities alike has to deal with this fundamental linchpin of drug culture; the money. The sheer economics of dealing are difficult to defeat. It is so very hard to lure a teenager with a fast food job when the big money and the ’street creds’ are found dealing dope. But train an enterprising mind in a field that they have an interest in, apprentice those willing to work, and you can start making street corner bling look shabby.

“Prevention is always better than intervention after the fact,” she said. “I think some of the children were quite emotional to see students their own age go through this.”

Prevention in this case comes in the form of a play titled The Drug Store that dramatizes for elementary age school children the course of a young, troubled teen’s entanglement in robbery and drug abuse, culminating in his death.

“Law enforcement agencies presented The Drug Store to 1,200 students at the Chino Fairgrounds last week.

Nine stations were set up, each partitioned by curtains, representing a different scene in a play, which followed a student through the course of his life on drugs.

It began with a pharmacy stage in which students were educated by narcotics officers who identified the replicas of a variety of illegal drugs, such as black tar heroin and marijuana.

Unbeknownst to the audience, a fellow student acted the role of a thief by stealing a package of the drug Ecstasy.

Daniel Barnett, a fifth-grader at Liberty Elementary School, continued his acting through each scene, where he was arrested and sentenced to weekend jail time and probation.”

The play was all the more powerful because many of the actors were familiar faces;teachers,pastors and students that the young audience already knew. The final dramatization depicted the teenage drug addict, played by a classmate, laying in a casket.

“Deacon Marlin Filipek of Saint Mary Magdalene Catholic Church was robed as he led the funeral as one of many volunteers who used their real profession to make an impression on the students.

“We’re planting a seed,” he said. “A lot of kids have never seen a casket.”

At the end of the dramatization the children lined up to look inside of the casket, where two mirrors lay in place of a body.

“There have been a few a-ha moments where the students get it,” Filipek said.

Daniel Fleeup, also of Liberty Elementary, was one of them.

“If you were to be the ones to take the drugs, then you’d be the one in the casket,” he said after seeing his reflection in the mirrors.

As for Daniel Barnett, he said the acting experience taught him not to use drugs, “no matter what.”
(Source)

More and more police organizations and schools are implementing early crisis intervention tools such as this play. If you are concerned about your at-risk teen or if your teenager has been an increasingly bad influence on a younger sibling, check in your community for something similar.