Gateway Academy Salt Lake City Utah

[TroubledParent]

This post has been removed

[Whooter]

Welcome, TroubledParent, Sorry about how you have been treated here.  Many of the posters here did not do well in programs and therefore have a very negative view of them.  They have very little tolerance for parents seeking help outside the home for their children so you may receive some harsh words.
Hopefully your son does well in his second placement.  It would be nice to keep us updated on how you are all making out as his stay there progresses.



...

[DannyB II]

Wait, you sent your kid to this shithole and you're actually going to get on here and complain about the fucking money you lost?!

And then you're going to just ship him off to another, presumably similar, shithole based on some Potemkin-village tours?
 
What the fuck is wrong with you?  Are you honestly looking for sympathy for doing this? The only thing you deserve is buckshot to the back of the head.

and you have the right to do this.......why?
Do you really think your reaching people when you talk like this. Ya know I talk like this but it is with you folks not with folks who come here looking for help. Pile you rail against abuse coming from programs but have no problem doing it to folks who most need your help. You sound like a ASs. Director from a program, right out of Elan. You would be great there, sign up.
One of Piles famous signature behavioral modification technics, beat them down first then hope they come back, if not fuck'em, just thro'em on the pile.
Pile at his best,  
"What the fuck is wrong with you?  Are you honestly looking for sympathy for doing this? The only thing you deserve is buckshot to the back of the head".

[DannyB II]

Yes please excuse the outburst from one poster, there are many here that care about the security of your sons wellness. Please be careful with his placement, I am not a big advocate of treatment centers but I also don't propose that I know everything about what exactly your son needs. I know there are folks here that have information that can help with your search for help, your son deserves the best. Please carefully investigate each program. Sounds like your son has special needs.

Danny

[Eliscu2]

Yes please excuse the outburst from one poster, there are many here that care about the security of your sons wellness. Please be careful with his placement, I am not a big advocate of treatment centers but I also don't propose that I know everything about what exactly your son needs. I know there are folks here that have information that can help with your search for help, your son deserves the best. Please carefully investigate each program. Sounds like your son has special needs.

Danny

THIS MESSAGE HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO YOU BY CHILD ABUSER DANNY BENNISON OF THE ELAN SCHOOL IN POLAND SPRING MAINE, WERE HE ABUSED CHILDREN AND HAD POWER 30 YEARS AGO.
LOOK:
Will you ever have that power again? NO
viewtopic.php?f=22&t=30611&p=365349&hilit=Cartoon+Croch#p365333
*Insert-"Shut up Felice you dirty filthy whore evil crazy satan girl with CARTOON CROTCH I dream of."
Danny :shamrock:  

Look I REACTEDfor you.

[Out of options]

Dear Troubled Parent,

Our son recently completed 10 months at Gateway Academy.  Our experience was quite different than yours.  I am sorry about how things worked out for you and I definitely empathize with the horrible feelings you must have faced while watching and trying to help your son in such difficult circumstances.  Our son too has severe impulsive anger issues, anxiety, depression, the whole range.  As a result of some pretty intensive efforts of our son and his therapists, he seems to be much better now.  He seems to be better equipped to handle his impulsivity so that he displays much, much, much less rage when he gets anxious and he has tools to help ease anxious and depressing moments.  Of course he still has the emotions, but he seems better able to recognize and deal with them.  We found Gateway's management and staff to indeed be very caring and committed.  The administrators were not always great at communicating with us and it was frustrating at times as matters seemed to slip through the cracks.  But the therapists themselves were wonderful to us and our son.  I do not know anything about what happened to you and your family and I would not challenge your view of things.  It is so tough for parents to get good information especially with the raging input from so many troubled kids that populate this site.  I just wanted to let you and and parents who may be in urgent circumstances and searching for options know that our experience with Gateway was excellent.  Our son credits Gateway with giving him a second chance to have a life when he was very doubtful previosuly that he could survive in his prior state.  There is no substitute for investigation and I know how hard it is for parents to try to find the right people and places to help our kids and our families.  So, by all means parents ought to be careful and heed Troubled Parents' words.  But they should also know that others have had a very different and very positive experience at Gateway Academy and would recommend it with little hesitation.  If I were a parent looking for a place, I would show the post by Trouble Parent to Gateway and ask them to explain.  I would also ask for names of other parents who are willing to speak about their family's experiences.

[Ursus]

If I were a parent looking for a place, I would show the post by Trouble Parent to Gateway and ask them to explain.

Do you seriously believe Gateway Academy will be forthright in their explanation?  

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Ursus, do you seriously believe that last post was made by anything resembling a human being? Actual people don't use that kind of combination of marketing-speak and platitudes.

[Ursus]

Ursus, do you seriously believe that last post was made by anything resembling a human being? Actual people don't use that kind of combination of marketing-speak and platitudes.

Ya never know...    

I guess I was more worried that some subsequent parent might read it and take it seriously.

This statement, however, was clearly made by someone who has not read very much of fornits, and/or has damage control on their mind:

"It is so tough for parents to get good information especially with the raging input from so many troubled kids that populate this site."[/list]

[Out of options]

I am not in marketing and am indeed a parent with a child who has suffered severe rage, depression and anxiety that threatened his life.  I actually reviewed Fornits many times while my son was away.  While there is informaiton available on the site that helped us be on our guard and excercise vigilance, the immature and outrageous postings by unhappy teens denuded the posts of credibility and merely provided evidence that the authors still need help.  We know that the statistics regarding teen treatment are very uncertain, but our son would not have survived if we had waited and done nothing.  The medical community where we live is over-burdened at best and ill-equipped to deal with teen concurrent disorders in any event.  The psychiatrists at our local university hospital told us to throw our son out of our house and hope that he got arrested before he got killed in a rage on the streets or killed himself.  As to whether Gateway would respond truthfully to inquiries, I can only say that every parent ought to be quizzing any institution to which they entrust the care of their child and must be satsfied with the responses.  In addition to visitng Gateway ourselves, we spoke to parents whose children had been there; spoke to some former residents; and we spoke to a clergyman in Utah who works with kids at several different facilities who had some very helpful insights.  I did ask Gateway about another issue that I saw raised online and I was satisfied with their repsonse.  I would not have believed them if they claimed that they have miraculous results or that with a houseful of teenaged boys with a whole ranage of behavioural and psychological problems, there are not  major issues that can and do arise.  Even the very best organizations still suffer from the fact that they are run by fallable people.  The issue isn't whether problems ever arise, but rather when management learns of problems, how did they deal with them and do the get repeated?  I have read some of the horror stories of some of the horrible places referred to on this site.  I can tell you that Gateway is not such a place.  It gave my son a supportive, safe environment, with about 20 hours of therapy a week plus in-house high school and a great outdoor athletic programme.  Family therapy benefited my son, my wife and me and our other sons.  Our lead therapist has remained in touch with us since our son left Gateway and cares about our family.  Is Fornits so cynical that there is no room for belief that there are parents and therapists who truly care and do their best without being part of a conspiracy of evil?

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Yup, definitely damage control.

[scanlonsherwood]

To all troubled teen parents-

       I was at gateway for 7 1/2 months back in 2003 during my sophomore year of high school. Before that I attended a number of different boarding schools, residential treatment facilities and wilderness programs. my parents probably spent around $500,000 on programs for me, and god knows how much more on therapists, doctors, psychiatrists, etc. I am now 23 and a recovering heroin addict/alcoholic. Speaking for myself, I can only say that my time at gateway, and in treatment as a whole when I was a teenager, was nothing but detrimental to my long term mental health. Basically I did what I had to do to get out, said all the right things and pleased the right people. When I got out all I gained from being in treatment was a complete loss of trust with people in general, and massive amounts of resentments and remorse. Be careful before sending your son to a place like this, make sure it is the right decision. Keep in mind, beneath all of the "fluff", therapeutic jargon, enticing tours, and websites, they're a business and like any other business there number one goal is to make money.

[seamus]

hey welcome to fornits

[NYC_Mom]

I’ve read nothing about educational consultants in this thread. Did know one hire one? I cannot imagine finding a residential program for my son by myself. How would I, a single Mom working a full time job, be able to make a decision based on my own internet research for what I think was best for my 16-year old son—who dropped out of school twice.  His next phase, if there wasn’t a drastic change, was self-medication—I knew it in my soul—and dropping out of school for the last time. I could not make the decision by myself so I hired an educational consultant who spends her time visiting the places she recommends.

This educational consultant was recommended two me twice, once in 2007 by a psychologist and then again in 2010 by my son’s psychologist. Based on his background, she knew he had significant learning issues and a history of anxiety and depression. After meeting with him she identified him as a “soft” kid and recommended a therapeutic wilderness program.  She then worked with the wilderness program team and recommended Gateway Academy. My son has been at the Draper house for four months and he went through the stage of saying what everyone wanted to hear (he had become an expert at convincing many of those around him that he was okay, that he just didn’t care about school). He also did this at the wilderness program. He was doing whatever he could to get out but I can tell you he left the wilderness program with 100% more self–esteem than when he entered the program.

For those who said the weekend staff at Gateway Academy are just there for a job I can tell you first hand and through my son’s response to them that they care for the individuals that are there. My son has had for this first time in his life caring male role models. They not only plan the most exciting outdoor activities but truly care about his success with the programs they plan; they plan these great activities with the goal of seeing the boys having fun and succeeding.

As for his therapist, she may not have a lot of experience, but like teachers you either have it or you don’t and she has it. She’s there for my son, holds him accountable, and is like a second mother figure—someone he knows that cares about him and he therefore trusts.

Not every place is for everyone so I highly recommend hiring an educational consultant.

[Oscar]

There is only one major problem with educational consultants in general and that is a 20 years+ tradition for referring a child to the residential program which pays the consultant most. It is the sad fact. I am not stating that Gateway is a better or worse option for your child compared to many of the residential programs, which are on the database. But based on the problems with referrals I fear that other options were ignored due to the economical concerns.