Message to L.C. - We can take out Peninsula Village

[ZenAgent]

In spite of all that, I don't harbor ill will toward the photographer - I still read her MySpace, it's interesting.

How sad that you have nothing better to do.

She still discusses her job and what goes on at PV.  It's valuable info to use against her employers. That's part of preparing a case.  How sad, huh?  Now piss off.

[Anonymous]

Interesting bit of information.

[Anonymous]

i said "how sad you engage in adhominan attacks" to the looser who attacked you for reading that blog which under the circumstances- or any is clearly very interesting

[ZenAgent]

i said "how sad you engage in adhominan attacks" to the looser who attacked you for reading that blog which under the circumstances- or any is clearly very interesting

A lot of counselors from PV have MySpace accounts, not surprising since most of them are 20-25 in age.  There was a reckoning of some sort at PV, and a lot of counselors were forced to set their accounts to private.  The photographer did change accounts, but she apparently suffers from ODD and brazenly criticized the clinical staff for it, as well as the "creepy people" who questioned her fetish being linked to children.

That being said, the counselor is pretty cool, and recently had a blessed event.  I enjoyed reading the progress, she was very excited and happy. Best wishes to her and her family.

If you want to see if any staff have MySpace accounts, just do a search on the program name.

[stoodoodog]

Just typing the words PV into my search engine last summer brought up several counselor myspaces. The top three results included the one that has received so much attention on this board over time.

[ZenAgent]

I finally got in touch with L.C.  Here's another young woman's story, posted with her permission.  It's pretty gut-churning.  This young lady and my step daughter have talked a bit, like Nam vets recounting the horrors.

Peninsula Village = HeLL       
My name I want to remain anonymous for now. I was sent to Peninsula Village back in Sept. 2004  Many things were horrible... just to name a few for now, because I do not want them to know who I am if they read this because I am working on trying to form a large lawsuit against them so yea but here are a few things I experienced there for about 6 months:
Being Physically restrained about twice daily on average where there was no reason for it whatsoever. An alarm kind of like a car alarm except much louder would be turned on and about 20 staff would come running into the unit and all basically jump me, throw me to the ground and sit on me to hold me down.... a few times they really hurt me.. I remember one instance in which they performed Xrays on my jaw and wrist from my restraint.
I would also be mechanically restrained when I "struggled" meaning when I was trying to escape my restraint because they were hurting me. I would be tied down to a bed and sometimes they would leave me there for hours or just about the whole day. If I had to go to the bathroom they would put a bedpan underneath me. disgusting. Also if I fell asleep they would come kick my bed and tell me to wake up. they said that being tied down was a punishment and not a treat of naptime. But it was a no wonder I was so tired. They had me way over medicated. I was put on Abilify for my agitation..Everytime they would restrain me, they would increase my dose.  I was up to 120 Mg daily. But thats not all... when I was restrained they would give me large dose shots in my ass of Klonopin, Haldol, Thorazine, etc. They would make me so tired I could have slept for days.
`we had to eat on our beds, we didnt even get to sit at a table.
`bathroom times were on their terms... if we had to go when it was not bathroom break, we had to wait, and if it was a real emergency they would allow it but then you would get consequenced for it later on in consequence grooup. wHO ever thought of being consequenced for having to use the bathroom?
`we were not allowed to talk except in group therapy or if we raised our hand and were actually called on.
`You had to sit on your bed with your back up against the wall. If you got off your bed, you woukd be restrained.
`there were level systems which always made me feel bad about myself.
 `when you were restrained they would strip you of your clothing and make you wear hospital gowns until you contracted to move  up to wearing scrubs then contracting to wear your clothes.
` the first day i goit there I was restrained and in my restraint I vomitted and they made me lay in it. my face was covered in it for about 2 hours.
` In my stay there i must have been restrained over 60 times and they were all completely unnecessary.
`we were forced to participate in their AA or NA groups. i never had an addiction problem but they said I did. they said I liked tranqs.   they were wrong, i never had one of them in me until I came to PV.
`i was forced to participate in Medicine wheel groups in which we had to learn and were tested on some kind of Native American Stuff.
`The director of my unit at the time was not licensed he was actually denied by the board of health so he was misrepresenting himself. He told me once, "if you think you are smart enough to get kicked out of here and escape it here you are wrong"
`I would not see my dad for weeks sometimes over a month.
`my family thrapy sessions would get taken away from me in which I could not talk to my dad much less see him
` if when i was talking to my dad and i tried to tell him how bad it was there they would end the family therapy session right there. they also told him I was incompetent and did not know what I was talking about when he heard me tell him about my bruises
` I was covered in bruises from the head down.
` that is all i am going to say for now.
the reason i was sent to PV was for PTSD from my mother passing away when i was 14. if i would cry about it, they told me I was attention seeking.
My PTSD worsened alot from being at PV. to this day I still have nghtmares and flashbacks from that place.
Please if you are thinking of sending your child there, take it from me, I have been there, there are much better places to go.
The one I got sent to from PV when i was kicked out in feb 05 was meridell in texas. now that is a wonderful place. i have nothing but good things to say about that place. But PV is the total opposite.

[Anonymous]

Just typing the words PV into my search engine last summer brought up several counselor myspaces. The top three results included the one that has received so much attention on this board over time.

I've been following your posts for awhile.  The only counselor you've ever focused on is this one.  What did the other counselors seem like?  You said that they all can't be evil because they leave.  Help me understand what you're up against: good and bad, please.

[ZenAgent]

Just typing the words PV into my search engine last summer brought up several counselor myspaces. The top three results included the one that has received so much attention on this board over time.

I've been following your posts for awhile.  The only counselor you've ever focused on is this one.  What did the other counselors seem like?  You said that they all can't be evil because they leave.  Help me understand what you're up against: good and bad, please.

The one we (stoodoo and I) focused on caused the most alarm for parents.  She was nearly dismissed for listing her job title and place of employment on a blog that featured her fetish/restraint photos of nude young women.  She also went into detail about patients' parents and their inability to "get" the program.  She claimed to know the family's kid better than they did, because she is a "pro".  An associate degree does not make her a mental health professional.  This same staffer went into great detail about the financial problems of PV, even naming a psychologist who was upset about the money woes.  I have the pages saved, they went to JCAHO, and as a result most counselors switched their MySpace accounts to private.  

The turnover rate is high, and a few staffers who left before the MySpace trouble do not hesitate to malign the program and the clinicians.  They do admit to missing the kids, but the clinical staff and the moneychangers ran them off.  The other counselors seemed dissatisfied and at one point it appeared an exodus out of PV was planned.  

To answer your question, my wife and I found the staffers to be well-meaning but corrupted by the clinical staff, who promote the "Break them down and build them up" fallacy.  The staff could certainly humiliate and tear kids apart, but were they qualified to "re-build" them?  A quick check of the counselors curriculum vitae revealed a lot of them didn't have any degrees, some only had GED's, and these people were in charge of conducting group therapy.

I could cite the good staff and the bad, but that would require naming them.  My step daughter found most of them to be sadistic, but a few counselors treated her with clandestine kindness. I wish I could give you more.  PM stoodoo or me if you like, we'll try to answer your questions.  We're not at liberty to go into great detail on the boards.

I should add that I've interviewed a good number of former PV patients, and the ones who had the fetish photographer liked her or eventually grew to like her.  She showed a lack of judgement on her MySpace by not separating her job counseling kids from her photography work.  MySpace is public, and I guess she never thought desperate, "creepy" parents would find it and be horrified, especially given the number of questionable restraints at PV.  The girls I spoke with remembered her as tough at first, but a counselor they respected.  That's saying a lot for the photographer, considering the torrents of obscenities directed at other staffers and especially "that (insert expletive of choice) doctor".  One young lady did say she "could have gone forever without seeing those disgusting pictures,"  The photos were second-rate, watered-down Richard Kern style B+D, nothing very creative.  One particularly tasteless shot, considering her counselor job, was a picture of a chubby goth-girl laying on a bed naked with her wrists slashed, a glamorized suicide shot, with the counselor's name as a watermark.  That made the rounds of advocate groups, JCAHO, and prompted the Tennessee Mental Health Department to drop in.  Certainly not illegal, all the models were of age, but unethical, unprofessional, and a lousy thing for parents to see when they're already questioning the restrictive nature of PV.  At least no one has to worry about Kern having a teen restrained at any time.  We found the MySpace page by Googling "peninsula village", it was the third item to come up.  Bad advertising...

The family therapist at PV told me the bondage pictures/confidential information/MySpace issue had "been addressed".  It's obvious it occurred at the end of August 2006 from the revamped postings:

"I had to clean up my myspace page because of a work related issue,"

"I'm slowly trying to rebuild my friends list for networking as I had to delete my profile back in August,"

August 23, 2006 - Wednesday
     

I had to delete my other profiles...
Current mood: irate
Category: Blogging

...because of a work related issue (which I'll discuss later).

I'm adding back my best friends. There will only be a small amount of you; no ridiculousness...at least not for a while!!!

This is Bxxx Lxx Txxxxx, BTW...incase you didn't already pick up on who I am. I will add to my profile later. Right now I'm too steamed to do anything.

I need to go out.[/b]

I can't ask that particular therapist for more details, she "left" PV shortly before my step daughter was released.  The therapist was at PV about a month longer than our girl - 8 months, I guess.  PV's turnover should be addressed - they go through personnel, even administrators, at an alarming rate.  I've tried to add up the number of administrators in the last seven years, and I come up with five, maybe six.  No one seems to leave on good terms, either.

[stoodoodog]

Just typing the words PV into my search engine last summer brought up several counselor myspaces. The top three results included the one that has received so much attention on this board over time.

I've been following your posts for awhile.  The only counselor you've ever focused on is this one.  What did the other counselors seem like?  You said that they all can't be evil because they leave.  Help me understand what you're up against: good and bad, please.

When I asked two of the family therapists about the staff at PV I was told that they were "qualified". I asked for CV on the staff that would be spending most of the time with my child. After an uncomfortable silence I was told that  NO ONE had EVER asked for THAT before
(ironic...that was in the same workout session that I inquired about Bad Girl with a similar response)
I was told that they thought a criminal history check was done on the counselors but they were not sure... and that they are "not trained to be warm and fuzzy."
I was quickly ushered out and told NEVER to show up at PV unless I had an appointment, and that would need to be scheduled several "at least three" weeks in advance.

At that point I took measures to find out more about the nameless, faceless people who would be in charge of my child most of the time. Isn't that what most parents would do?

Now that my child is home, I know the names of the good counselors and the not so good ones, but it doesn't mean sh*t to me.

[ZenAgent]

In relation to the discussion about staff background and the refusal of Peninsula Village to disclose the curriculum vitae of the line staff, I'll post this "red flag" from Maia Szalavitz's "10 Good Questions" , http://www.helpatanycost.com/questions.php (Peninsula Village flunked 9 out of 10!  Maybe all 10, I'm not too sure about #10)
 
#2  What are the qualifications of the line staff who work directly with the teens?
There should be someone of at least a master's level working with the kids most of the time; staff should have been subjected to criminal background checks, and the more educated the line staff, the better. Any kind of group should be led by a therapist of at least master's level--less than that (especially no degree required, trained only by the program itself) is a red flag.

I don't care about staff copping the attitude "I ain't got book learning, but I got horse sense,"  That's horse shit, because they let them run therapy groups.  Since PV won't provide information on staff, concerned parents go looking for it, and they will look everywhere if they''re good parents.  You want to know who's watching your kids.  What we discovered was PV has a damn good reason for not providing backgrounds:  they'd lose business.  Here's a good example of how thorough the hiring process of Covenant Health and Peninsula Behavioral Health is:

The Knoxville News-Sentinel

December 20, 2000

Peninsula counselor faces 4-year sentence
Author: Kristi L. Nelson, News-Sentinel health writer


A Peninsula Behavioral Health program counselor who was hired after he pleaded no contest to two counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of an illegal weapon will be sentenced Jan. 26 in Sullivan County. The sentence hearing had been scheduled for Friday but was delayed.

In the plea agreement, James A. "Jim" Young would receive two three-year concurrent sentences and one year consecutive for a total of four years.

Young was arrested Jan. 25, 2000, after chasing his estranged wife and stepson through a Kingsport parking lot and holding them at gunpoint while the woman called 911 from a pay phone, according to Kingsport police reports. His now ex-wife, Cathy Young, had filed for an order of protection against Young, but police had been unable to find him. After she and her 29-year-old son, Matthew Forbes, located Young at a Kingsport motel, she went to a pay phone to call police, but Young blocked hervehicle and pul! led a handgun on the two.

After a brief chase, Kingsport police apprehended Young. They then recovered from his vehicle five rifles, two shotguns, a compound box, two 4-foot swords and a dozen boxes of ammunition.

Young pleaded no contest to all three charges in June. With a no contest plea, a defendant does not admit guilt. For sentencing purposes it is the same as a guilty plea or conviction.

In September, Young, who has a counseling background, was hired as program counselor in the adult unit at Peninsula Hospital.

A statement from Peninsula said Young is "on administrative leave pending review of this matter." Peninsula declined to say when that administrative leave began, but Jeff Benson, program director of adult services for Peninsula Hospital, had written a letter of reference for the court less than a month after Young's hiring. In the Oct. 17 letter, Benson called Young "a valuable and vital member of our staff team" and "a role! model for other staff."

Peninsula would not provide Young's job description but confirmed that he has direct contact with patients. A classified ad for "program counselor" at Peninsula cites supervising and confronting residents and monitoring their behavior among other job duties.

Peninsula did not give a policy statement for hiring counselors with criminal records, although a general job application for its parent company, Covenant Health, asks whether the applicant has been convicted of a crime and gives space to list dates, followed by this note: "A conviction record will not necessarily disqualify you from employment. Such factors as age and time of offense, seriousness and nature of the violation will be taken into account."

Mary Crawford, spokesperson for the Helen Ross McNabb Center, a mental and behavioral health facility not affiliated with Peninsula, said that company has a similar policy for applicants with criminal records, evaluating them on a case-by-case basis.

"We would probably look at the! person and see what the crime was, how long ago it had been and what they had done with their life since then," Crawford said.

However, she said, someone who had committed a "crime against people" probably wouldn't be hired as counselor.

Young could not be reached for comment.

"Two four foot swords"?  What is he, a D+D freak gone over the edge?

[Kreflo]

In relation to the discussion about staff background and the refusal of Peninsula Village to disclose the curriculum vitae of the line staff, I'll post this "red flag" from Maia Szalavitz's "10 Good Questions" , http://www.helpatanycost.com/questions.php (Peninsula Village flunked 9 out of 10!  Maybe all 10, I'm not too sure about #10)

 
I am. Add 10, PV easily fails on that one.

[ZenAgent]

In relation to the discussion about staff background and the refusal of Peninsula Village to disclose the curriculum vitae of the line staff, I'll post this "red flag" from Maia Szalavitz's "10 Good Questions" , http://www.helpatanycost.com/questions.php (Peninsula Village flunked 9 out of 10!  Maybe all 10, I'm not too sure about #10)

I am. Add 10, PV easily fails on that one.

(Putting hand to ear)  No...No, I don't hear a denial from the PV camp.  
10 out of 10...on the day of judgement, we'll be waving away the thick, greasy smoke coming off their abusive asses as they burn in hell.

[Anonymous]

Check out the other PV thread on this page. A fine example of the damage PV does to kids.

[Anonymous]

Check out the other PV thread on this page. A fine example of the damage PV does to kids.

Damage seems like a kind word here.

[ZenAgent]

I'd like to bring this back up again - read L.C.'s story, examine the style, the use of question marks.  Maybe WANF was unaware of this thread, I don't know.  I got in touch with WANF through another board, not Fornits.  

Her story was very important to Stoodoo and I - we were unaware of PV, and this is the first thing Stoodoo read.  It was up on Infoshop, and  in that version, "Mokara" tied PV closely to fascism.

WANF is not a plant, she's another survivor and a bit unfamiliar with forums.  She writes quickly, and is passionate about her concerns and unfortunately didn't realize how (normally) focused we try to be on the topics of the threads.  To her, it's all inter-related, with PV being another symptom of a sick society.

I could not be sure she was the same person who contacted me by email.  I tried, she dodged.  Eventually I became suspicious, and thought she might be tied to a PV counselor who has recently posted a  very personal attack on me, mostly, but also discusses my step daughter's case,  disclosing details a little too individually identifiable, resulting in my family filing a HIPAA complaint.  Like I've said before, the staffers at PV aren't the sharpest knives in the drawer.  Professional ethics isn't something a GED covers, or four years in a community college.

The thought it was the same young lady still nagged at me, and I emailed her again and received no response.   I posted a bit of confidential information I thought she'd recognize, she missed it or was afraid to address it.  Then people started jumping her case, she started shooting back.  I got mad, and had a go at her, and sure enough, she DID see the confidential info, and asked how I knew (blank).  It was all I needed for proof.  I made a bit of amends, told her we were all on the same team, and we should start over.  I haven't communicated with her on Fornits since, only encouraged her to use P.M. after registering, and I would answer her questions.   She had realized I was the person she had contacted, and I guess she hadn't checked her email account recently - I had told her in an email I went by Zen Agent on Fornits.

WANF and I were both victims of post-PV paranoia.  She wants to help.

The person posting in all caps who wanted to chew on Niles prostrate - not WANF.  Please, folks, she means no harm.  She has a lot of issues she considers important, and if some words offend her, I guess we shouldn't mock her.  I know I made some nasty remarks, because censorship is one of the things I despise.

Again, she means no harm, and she knows a lot about the abuses at PV.  I hope she'll fill out TSW's questionnaire, she could shed a lot of light on what things were like around 1998, and what changes have occurred.  Although the statute of limitations is up for her to file a lawsuit against PV for the gut-churning abuses she's described, there's still a chance she and any of the girls she attended PV with can file a lawsuit.  There is an exception to the statute of limitations, the "date of discovery".  I have a "discovery" she would only be aware of after I email her the info, then she has a new case with a fresh start on the statute of limitations.