Troubled Teens Resources

Schools for troubled teens are certainly not limited to America. Almost every country has programs for troubled teens, some, such as those in the undeveloped middle eastern countries are brutal and no more than punitive prisons with no concern over the teen’s future. Western societies have long catered to their teenagers and troubled teen programs are designed to remove the teenager out of bad environments and provide the stability and training necessary to live productive lives.

And they, for the most part, are extremely effective in turning around the lives of those teenagers willing to do the work.

One teen’s story is typical. Canadian teen Anita was being raised by a drunken and addicted mother. She loathed her school and decided in eigth grade to express that by starting a section of it on fire. After police tracked her down, she was fortunate to be diverted into a troubled teen boarding school.

“I’ve been happy and healthy ever since,” she says..Since Anita started at Whytecliff, her grades have improved. Instead of failing, she’s earning Cs and Bs.

“It’s been a lot better. I could see me finishing my Grade 12 here,” she says.

The school is not your average institution with florescent lights, loud bells and chaos in the halls. The lighting at Whytecliff is soft and low, the modern interior is mostly done in wood and it’s pretty much quiet save for the humming of computers. The atmosphere is no accident - everything has been carefully thought out to create a comforting, non-distracting environment for at-risk teens who need a sense of security, principal Bryce Hewitt explains.

“You need stability to grow,” he says, adding that’s something these teens lack in their peer and family networks.”

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Many out-of-control teenagers end up in schools for troubled teens because they have no will or mind of their own. Sounds harsh, but a teen who gives into peer pressure does so because they have allowed someone else to more power over them than they do over themselves.

But how do you raise a teen to be independent and strong? Why are some teens imbued with a sense of who they are and a healthy portion of self-respect and some teens seem to be clay in whatever hands can mold them?

It is a very tricky task to raise a strong willed teen but it can be done.

“One mistake parents make is giving children too much independence when they’re not mature enough to handle it.

“Teens need limits and structure, and they also need to know that they are loved,” he says. “Even though my teenage patients sometimes think it’s weird, I tell them to ask advice from their parents, not their peers, adding, ‘Your mom won’t lead you astray.’”

He’s bothered by parents who assume “If everybody’s doing it, it’s okay. Parents should not automatically accept their teen’s answers to their concerns – for example, the significance of a bracelet or armband – but should question everything.”

“I define peer pressure to my patients as ‘what I think they think I am,’ and ask them, ‘Do you want to be a slave to all your friends?’” he says.

He finds that teenage girls, especially, look for their self-esteem in others. “Instead they should believe in themselves, accept themselves with all their mistakes and successes.”

(source)

Related: Troubled Teens and Peer Pressure

Teen age drug abuse has resulted in thousands of drug education and preventative programs across the country, all designed to protect the teenagers in their respective communities. Some are very comprehensive, encompassing everything from computer labs to mentorship, such as the Grumman program we just posted about at our Troubled Teens blog.

But when there isn’t a big corporation willing to underwrite a large program, it falls upon those dedicated individuals who individually continue to educate parents and teens about the dangers of drugs in any way that they can.

The following account is impressive in that an event focused on the town’s teens drew a crowd of three hundred concerned parents. We’ve reported where similar efforts drew zero - nada - no parents. You just have to love small town America.

“…a Columbia County Magistrate Judge has dedicated the last year to using straight talk to teenagers and their parents to help keep teenagers out of trouble.

Judge Wade Padgett hosts Teenage Years 101. It’s a program to spread a message of awareness to parents and teenagers …and tonight Judge Padgett delivered his message for the 20Th time.”

It seems he never has trouble drawing a crowd, tonight more than three hundred parents and grandparents packed the pews at West Acres Baptist Church.

Grandparents Pat and Billy Becton were there, hoping to learn more about problems their seven grandchildren may face. “Kids today face a lot more temptations than they did when we were growing up.” Says Billy Becton.
[…]
Jennifer Thompson and her husband were on hand listening on behalf of their eight children. “You hope you’ve taught them the right things, but they have a lot of things they encounter, so it’s tough.” says Jennifer.”

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Accredited and professionally staffed schools for troubled teens will have curriculum and behavioral programs that address a variety of teen problems. Two of the more important lessons driven home to these teenagers are accountability and consequences. Teens at risk who do not learn to own their mistakes and pay for them are destined to continue along the same destructive course.

These are lessons that used to be taught at home, and still are by responsible parents. A simple example follows. A mother has to pick up her son at 3:00 AM from a drinking party busted by cops. That is when she realized her normally “good kid” was flirting with danger.

“The teen’s mother took immediate action, grounding him.

“I put him on restriction,” she said. “I took away his car and only let him use it for work.”

The woman said her son is a good student and had not been rebellious in the past, but her frustration is that “all you can do as a parent is teach your kids what’s right and hope your kids make the right decisions.

“It’s pretty hard (to stop them from drinking) unless you ostracize them from their friends, and you can’t really do that,” she said.

“As a parent, we just have to instruct (kids) that what they decide can negatively affect the rest of their lives,” she said. “You have to help them see the future beyond the next party.”

The woman said her son is now headed in the right direction — he’s going to college this fall.
(source)

Teen crisis intervention programs have been organized nation wide in an effort to stem the tide of teen age crime and drug abuse. One such popular program, Drug Court, has had measurably good success with re-offenders.

The cycle of drug abuse is rarely ended after the first cycle of rehab for many teenagers. A run through a boot camp or brat camp, if there are even any available, is rarely enough in hard core cases. It is difficult to equip a teen to deal with the pervasive influence of drugs if they live in the midst of a neighborhood that is rife with dealers and gangs. Teen programs such as Drug Court give teens a last chance to reform before the system swallows them up.

“Teenagers who repeatedly land in juvenile court for drug- and alcohol-related crimes have a new opportunity to get clean.
[..]
The program aims to reduce recidivism and teach teenagers how to be responsible human beings with no drug or alcohol abuse…
[…]
Drug court, which takes between 12 and 18 months to complete, consists of five phases, each a bit less intense than the last.

Offenders accepted into the drug court program suffer from addiction and, without serious intervention, they risk being taken from their homes and put in a youth center for in-patient treatment.
[…]

Offenders with diagnosed substance abuse or dependency who need treatment with a juvenile record are eligible for the program. The substance abuse treatment is done through the Washington County Health Department, Bricker said.
[…]
“It’s a last-ditch effort prior to going to placement,” said Cherity Shahan of the Department of Juvenile Services.”

(Source)

Do you ever want to shout “Amen!” after reading an article that “nails” an issue perfectly? Well, at least according to your view on the topic. Yet I think few parents of teenagers would disagree that the constant hue and cry for teen crisis intervention is just not quite right. The Boomer generation especially has an understanding that teen age life is not supposed to be this never ending series of drama and angst.

Granted, crime is worse, threats are everywhere and the relative innocence of the last century has shuffled off the stage. But why? Why have we come to need a designation such as “predatory teen”? How did the “troubled teenager” come to be accepted as a norm?

The only predators that generations past had to deal with walked on four legs, excepting the occasional bi-ped miscreant whom society punished immediately, and, I might add, without anguishing if a childhood trauma “made him do it”.

Schools for troubled teens? Teens “back then” didn’t have the luxury of being troubled and the occasional teen who turned to the dark side saw the inside of a “reform school” the likes of which would curl you hair. The ACLU would be apoplectic.

What in the world happened? The following author, excerpted below, nails it, and to him one could say a hearty, amen!.

“…the crucial difference between teens then and now, here and there, is not physiology, but parents who give a lot and expect relatively little, a media that encourages the young to view life as a never-ending soap opera, and a pop culture that enables teen irresponsibility. In the latter are included “experts” who tell us that we really have no right to expect mature behavior from teenagers.

Our children deserve more than this. Don’t they?”

(Source)

Teen help does not mean supervising your teenagers’ “kegger”. Teen help does not mean collecting all the car keys at your kid’s pool party and then going inside to settle in for a movie. What should be patently obvious is apparently a point of contention in the ongoing battle to prevent teens at risk from drinking.

Many parents feel that allowing their teens access to alcohol under controlled conditions will teach them responsibility. However, the prevalent word from the experts is that is just a comforting, but spurious notion.

“In many cases parents do this under the false assumption that they are protecting their kids. They make the assumption that they won’t drink elsewhere and that’s not true,” says Robert Lindsey, director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

In addition to drunken-driving accidents that too often end tragically, teen-drinking parties can spawn sexual assaults, stabbings, brawling and neighborhood vandalism. “We all know we’re fooling ourselves if we think underage drinking is fine,” says Stacy Saetta, a legal policy researcher at the Center for the Study of Law and Enforcement Policy in Felton, Calif. “Simply to say it’s a rite of passage isn’t good enough.” Even when parents think they are doing the right thing by gathering car keys of partiers, “kids still get away and still drive drunk,” she said. “These parties are very, very dangerous.”

(source)
(via Save Our Youth)

Teen crisis intervention programs developed across the nation represent millions of dollars and man hours dedicated to diverting teens from the often fatal consequences of underage drinking. Parents who fail to see the immensity of the problem are failing their teenagers first and foremost.

“We’re building a reputation that if you’re having a party, you’re probably going to see us,” Prevost said.”

Such is the determination of a group of Vermont law enforcement officers that take part in a teen crisis intervention program known as START, or the Stop Teen Alcohol Risk Team.

Developed to combat the scourge of underage drinking, SMART exists to prevent parties from ever starting, breaking up ones that they find and educating adults on the risks they incur if they facilitate a teen drinking party.

“The START team can be activated anytime, anywhere. Officers will even get called out from home.

Team members said each underage drinking party police find out about is investigated, and the adults responsible for providing the space — whether they are aware of the party or not — and the alcohol can be charged criminally or civilly.”

Instead of facing criminal charges, teenagers discovered drinking are put through a diversion program that includes counseling if an alcohol screening test indicates any signs of alcoholism.

“If they satisfactorily complete the requirements laid out by diversion (that are individual, based on screening) they have a clean slate,” said Montpelier Police Sergeant Facos.”

Though alcohol and drug abuse are a concern throughout the year, the approach of prom season and summer have communities gearing up to make underage drinking as difficult as possible, both for the teenagers and the misguided parents who allow the parties to go on.

“Although the underage drinking ethic hasn’t changed, as more parents become educated about the hazards of underage drinking, their attitudes seem to be changing.

“I don’t get yelled at or hung-up on anymore by parents I call in the middle of the night,”

(Source)