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.

Allow me to bring to your attention a very candid,thorough account of one parents search for a teenage treatment program, boarding or military school.  As health professionals, they bring a different and valuable perspective to the process of evaluating various teen academies.
It’s a long piece that you can click over and read. We reproduce some key excerpts below:

“Parents of children and youth with severe emotional and behavioral problems soon discover that there are numerous roadblocks to seeking effective treatment. Most states have laws that restrict parents’ ability to deal effectively with their children’s serious behavior problems. Parents are legally and civilly responsible for the actions of their children, but they have very little legal authority to intervene in a serious way In most states, for example, parents can neither have their child drug tested nor receive the results of a drug test unless the child gives authorization. Additionally, in most states, parents must receive the child’s permission before placing him or her in a treatment facility. Parents can go through complex and lengthy legal proceedings to have their children hospitalized, but emergencies usually demand immediate action. Add to this the difficulties with managed care, where treatment often benefits the bottom line rather than the patient, and you have a very difficult situation.”

[..]

“Once we made the decision to place Jamie in a residential facility, we began an intensive and systematic search to identify the facility that would best meet his needs. We researched residential programs whose orientations ranged from medical to wilderness survival. We wanted specific information about their educational and treatment programs, average length of stay, and — most important — outcomes experienced by people who had completed their programs.

The information we received was at best confusing and very general. Very few facilities had any real information concerning their program’s effectiveness. Many institutions indicated that their programs were highly effective, and we were provided with testimonial evidence, but when we pressed for specific numbers, we discovered that virtually none of the institutions had any data on program effectiveness or outcomes of the youth they had graduated.

Equally disturbing were the answers we received when we asked how youth progressed through the treatment programs. In most cases, the answers suggested that there was little if any organized system of program advancement. There were some programs that had well-thought-out plans that were specifically linked to improvements in the youth’s behavior, but these were few and far between. What was abundant across institutions was the barrage of mail, videos, advertisements, phone calls, and promotional offers that we received.”
from Difficult Decisions: Lessons Learned From One Family’s Story of Residential Placement/William H Evans

The authors also produce a questionnaire - Questions to Ask When Considering Residential Placement - that will help a parent structure their own search for a troubled teen boarding school.