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.

When a troubled teen is given chance after chance to clean their act up and they just keep getting into trouble it might be time to send them to a troubled teen boarding school.

“The 15-year-old narrowly avoided a detention sentence, after she refused to co-operate with the Youth Offending Service and continually breached her curfew order.
The girl had been sentenced to a supervision order with a curfew earlier this year for a number of offences, including being drunk and disorderly, punching and headbutting her boyfriend outside the Wrexham Tesco store and smashing equipment in a Wrexham youth home.
However, she failed to comply with this order on a number of occasions, despite being given a last chance to do so in September.
Magistrates at Wrexham Youth Court heard representations from the Youth Offending Service, who expressed concerns about the girl’s safety and said she was “spiralling out of control”.
The youth offending team told the court the only way to deal with the teenager was to send her to a detention unit.
Jane Meyers, defending, told the court she agreed and saw no other option.
She said the common thread through was alcohol misuse.
Ms Meyers said the teenager, who had been in care since the age of two, had no previous records until these offences and had found it difficult to adjust over the last two years after leaving her foster home of 10 years and being relocated.
She added her client was very vulnerable and incidents of self harming were becoming more serious.
However, magistrates decided not to send the girl to a detention unit but sentenced her to a 12-month conditional discharge.
They defended the decision, saying they were putting more responsibility on the teenager to prove she could sort herself out with the help of her social workers.”

Tipton Academy is an effective option for troubled teen boys.
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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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In this day and age of text messaging and virtual gaming, many teens aren’t able to develop the social skills of yesterday. This thought begs the question: Is technology crippling the upcoming generations of teens? Some say it is so.

Text messaging is a great way to notify someone if your running late for a meeting or for a simple reminder to take out the trash, but to many teens, it has become their main form of communication. Have you ever tried to call your teenager to talk to them, they don’t answer but respond with a text message of “what do ya want?” Instead of the common courtesy of a call back, they use this crutch form of communication.

Virtual gaming is a big influence on teenagers and adolescents. You can become anything you want to be and you can be successful with enough practice on the screen. Many teens who struggle with social skills find they’re comfortable with a more virtual world. Instead of working on their ability to communicate in a social setting, they opt to completely phase out reality and become a virtual warrior or soldier. School shootings and other adolescent tragedies and crimes can and have been linked to virtual gaming.

There is an epidemic in today’s America; there are more troubled teens than ever before! Technology has aided in causing this epidemic. Parents are struggling to maintain control over their defiant teens. With laws that limit a parent’s ability to discipline, some parents don’t know what to do or where to turn for help in their family crisis.

If you are struggling with a defiant teen and need help contact Troubled Teens’  at 1-866-495-840.

Parents researching schools for troubled teens are naturally apprehensive. How to discern good advice from bad, how to determine which programs being offered are appropriate for their teen’s issues? Should the school be close to home, or far away? What will their insurance cover? How often will they see their teens? Is there follow up?

Teen Options offers an informative podcast that will help parents sort through their options. In fact, all of Troubled Teen Resource’s sites are replete with information for parents of troubled teens. But how do you evaluate the staff? These are the people who will study the teens in their charge in order to motivate, counsel and instruct them. What constitutes a good leader for youth?

Just so happens, I’ve run into some suggestions for that answer:

“…the five characteristics present in those who most effectively work with young people:

• they see genuine potential in youth.
• They put youth at the center of their programs.
• They believe they can make a difference with youth.
• They feel they are contributing to the community something they owe.
• They are “unyieldingly authentic.”

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Having worked with youth, and long ago, having been one of those youth who were “worked with”, I can vouch for the desirability of the above traits. Authenticity can permeate even the most determined defenses. Teens may yet resist what they are being taught, but they have an instinct for detecting hypocrisy, at least they do when they take measure of those who will tell them how they need to live.

Likewise, passion for youth is almost mandatory, and you’ll find evidence of that passion in the resumes of the counselors and teachers at professionally staffed schools.

Can a cigarette ultimately lead a kid to teen drug abuse,land them in jail or in schools for troubled teens? Well, it’s a stretch, but the first step down that road has to start somewhere and a recently released report offers the opinion that it starts with that first cigarette.

“Compared to 12- to 17-year-olds who don’t smoke, teenagers who do are over five times more likely to drink and 13 times more likely to use marijuana, media reported quoting a U.S. study Wednesday.

Smokers aged 12 to 17 are more likely to drink alcohol than nonsmokers — 59 percent compared to 11 percent, the study found.

Compared to those who never smoked, those who began smoking at age 12 or younger are more than three times more likely to binge on alcohol — 31 percent compared to 9 percent, and nearly seven times more likely to use other illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine.”

If indeed the report proves to be accurate - and one always hesitates to accept these findings without further confirmations down the road - none the less, if it is true, then the sequence of addictions is one everyone is familiar with.

The question that has often been posed by parents asks if teenagers seek relief for their depression and anxiety via drugs or if drug use precedes the onset of those conditions. This suggests that smoking could set the teen up for both.

“Teenagers who smoke also have a higher risk of depression and anxiety disorders. Teens who reported early initiation of smoking were more likely to experience serious feelings of hopelessness, depression and worthlessness in the past year.”

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There are many schools for troubled teens that offer strict rules and regulations that some teens need , but some teens need something different. There are new types of schools that are not only giving teens an education but teaching them new skills and helping them gain a new out look on life and the world. These new schools use different kinds of ways to help teens at risk that some other schools don’t offer.

“Outback feels it is critical for students to continue their education during their expedition, rather than taking a break from school altogether. Outback, in conjunction with Woodland Hills School, has designed a unique academic program that helps students continue their education while receiving intense clinical support, treatment, and development. We find that students rediscover a joy of learning while in the Outback program - so they are inspired to succeed in school when they return home.”

“Kids relate to symbols - clothes, name brands, hot gadgets, and celebrity icons.Outback’s use of metaphors and experiential education to effect a symbolic rite of passage have more impact and are more effective than talk-therapy traditionally used for adults. Students begin a transformational journey against the backdrop of mountains and blue sky.”

“In an independent research study by Keith C. Russell, PH. D., of the University of Idaho’s Wilderness Research Center, various outdoor education programs for adolescents — including three Aspen programs — participated. The study concluded that participation in such outdoor programs resulted in clinically significant reductions in severity of behavioral and emotional symptoms. More than 83% of participants made such improvement. Almost half (46%) of participants returned to a normal range as a result of treatment. After an 18-month study, researchers concluded that the participants not only maintained their outcomes, but continued to improve after treatment.”

If sending your teen away to a boarding school full time is something you feel is too extreme for your teen , there are many other programs to consider. These programs will still let your teen get the credits that they need for there education , but they will get treatment at the same time in a much different way.
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A stray puppy found next to it’s dead companion on a rural world has found a new home at an Alabama state run rehabilitation camp for troubled teen girls. And in his rescue there was also a rescue of another kind. The recuse of many young, but hardened, hearts.

What the young girls discovered when they picked up this bedraggled creature was the effectiveness of an animal in healing a human heart, a principle that has been successfully employed in animal assisted therapies that are available in some troubled teen boarding schools.

Animal assisted therapy teaches on a number of levels.
Often troubled teens are very self-absorbed, looking only at their world through the lens of their own needs. Taking care of pet shifts a teen’s attention off of themselves to that of another living creature, a living creature that returns love ten fold, without question. It is an experience some troubled teens have never experienced.

Animal assisted therapy also addresses issues of responsibility and accountability. It helps a teen to focus on the needs of someone else and to realize the satisfaction of living up to what is expected of them responsibly.
They get to learn how it feels to affect another life positively instead of destructively.

When seeking out a troubled teen boarding school for your teenagers, parents should review boarding schools like Tipton Academy for Boys. Animal assistance therapy is just one of the many programs in a comprehensive sweep of behavior modification therapies that Tipton offers to bring a troubled teen back to a productive life.

You can never predict what will move a troubled teen’s heart from sadness to hope. What will be that one thing that will divert an at-risk teen from a path of drug abuse and a ruined life.
A parent needs every weapon, every tool available to deflect the wayward teen away from substance abuse and a well done inspirational movie is valuable addition to the arsenal.
One such movie is “Take the Lead” based on real life dance impresario Pierre Dulaine.

“The formula sounds familiar: Inner-city kids with various problems are introduced to a positive and persistent role model, one who, after breaking through their tough exteriors with the power of ballroom dance, changes their outlook–and lives–for the better, forever.
[…]
New York City dance instructor Pierre Dulaine, whose New York public school-based Dancing Classrooms program was the subject of the 2005 Academy Award-nominated documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom” and the inspiration for “Take the Lead.” Dulaine’s program teaches the waltz, rumba, merengue, foxtrot, and other dance forms to fifth-graders in over 120 elementary schools throughout all five boroughs of New York City. All at no cost to the students.”
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If your teenager is flirting with drug use, don’t make the mistake of deciding for them what it is that may inspire them. Even though today, a touch of cynicism comes natural to all of us, it can be something as simple as a movie that will help a child discover an innate skill or gift that they never knew they possessed or had no hope of expressing.

You can’t predict what the turning point will be for your troubled teen, but it could be simple, “corny” movie is the instrument that turns your teen away from drug abuse.

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.