I would not recommend a punitive "structured" program for any child with a major mental illness.
I also believe that because of the relatively high risk of suicide, BPD should be reclassified as one of the major mental illnesses.
Take a hint from the US military. They do not accept people with major mental illnesses, or even many of the minor ones, as recruits to go into Boot Camp. If they discover a major mental illness or even many of the minor ones, they will discharge the recruit "for the good of the service" right then.
They don't do that because they don't like people with mental health problems. They do that because they have long experience and recognize that the highly structured "break you down to build you up" format of boot camp works well for mentally healthy men and works okay for mentally healthy women, but has very bad results with mentally ill people.
While many of these programs aren't "boot camps," their punitive structure and confrontational therapeutic model is very much the same psychologically as boot camp.
Your daughter may well need residential treatment, but the kind of treatment appropriate to a child that shoplifts or gets in fistfights or breaks into neighborhood houses is *not* the type of treatment that will help her problem.
Any residential treatment program that accepts teens with those problems is going to be inappropriate for a teen with *your* teen's problem.
*Your* teen needs the facility to have enough control over the facility to keep her away from sharp objects, and a supportive therapeutic model focused on therapies that have good support in scientific studies for actually being effective in the treatment of her disorder.
Behavior Modification facilities almost universally lack rigorous clinical studies supporting their claims to "success" in treating specific mental illnesses. Instead, they generally rely on testimonials and the feelings of parents of being satisfied with the service---without any objective measure (and tests to make those measurements *do* exist) to show that improvement actually occurred.
At least one study I'm aware of showed that parents and former students referred to the researcher by a BM facility gave the researcher glowing reviews for how much they'd been "helped"---but objective measures of the depressive symptoms that they'd supposedly been helped with showed *no change*.
Buyer Beware. Big time.
There is a lot of bad residential treatment out there, and you can't tell by cost---some of the bad places cost an arm and a leg.
Look for a mental health facility that takes patients with mental illnesses but *doesn't take* patients with criminal misbehavior problems, that has a supportive rather than confrontational therapeutic model (group therapy, done right, can be good---but in residential centers, it may be a warning sign of confrontational approaches where newcomers are yelled at for their percieved failings by oldcomers--ask lots of questions. Buyer Beware).
Ask detailed questions about the food and water. With some facilities, the claim that the food is "plain, but nourishing" has been a euphemism for food that is calorically and nutritionally inadequate to the level of activity of the teen. The day's meals should have enough calories for an active teen of your child's body weight, and should be balanced by protein, carbs, and fat. Fresh fruit and vegetables should be abundant in the menus. Weigh your child on visits to check for sudden, unexplained weight loss. Ask, specifically, and get it signed and in writing, that your child's food will not be reduced or altered as punishment for rulebreaking.
Your child should *not* be carrying around and having to refill a plastic water bottle---those things build up e-coli like no tomorrow. Tap water should be clean and readily available. Look for water fountains or lots of disposable paper cups and trash cans.
Out of the blue on a visit, unannounced, ask to see your child's dorm room and where she keeps her clothes. Verify that there are plenty of clean changes of clothing in her size, as well as enough storage (dressers, closets) for ample change of clothing for any roommate(s).
Check her toiletries, unannounced. She should have plenty of soap and shampoo and toothpaste and a toothbrush (in good condition), there should be ample toilet paper in the bathrooms, as well as ample menstrual supplies wherever they're kept. Make sure the showers are clean.
Go to the cafeteria at a mealtime and verify that the children are actually eating what you've been told they are.
Check the kitchen and verify that the supplies on hand seem adequate to supporting that volume of children eating what you've been told they eat.
Talk to your child's therapist at the facility and ask him/her to discuss with you the therapeutic model he/she is using and his/her views on the relative merits of supportive versus confrontational therapeutic models.
Ask very detailed questions about exactly how infractions of the rules are dealt with, and with timeout kind of punishments, ask very detailed questions about where it takes place (ask to see the room---don't take "no" for an answer---if they try to put you off it's a major red flag). Make sure the room is neither too cold nor too hot. Ask if students being punished in this fashion are required to assume specific positions or postures and/or are restricted from changing positions or postures. Get what you are told signed and in writing.
There is good residential treatment out there.
There is also a lot of bad treatment and misleading if not outright fraudulent claims made to parents about the treatment of their child.
It's like hiring a contractor to do work on your house---fraud and bad practices are rife, you *really* have to do your homework.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't use residential treatment in situations that call for it, just that you have to check out the facility extremely carefully.
Any *good* facility will know there are bad facilities out there and won't be at all put off at you asking so many questions and wanting the answers in writing.
Any facility that *is* put off by that is likely worrying that you'd have too much proof in a fraud lawsuit if they mistreat your child or don't provide the services you're paying them for.
Buyer Beware.
