Aspen Achievement Academy

[AParent]

Does anyone have any information on or experience with the Aspen Achievement Academy in Loa, Utah?

[FaceKhan]

It would help if you listed the Parent Company or organization, if any, and the owners or operators or senior staff names.



A good checklist of things to look for can be found at: http://www.nospank.net/beware.htm



Basically if it claims to fix your kid, if it denies the usefullness of conventional therapy, or if the usual holiday visits are not permitted it is a bad sign. You should also make sure that you have seen the facility first hand, and request to see every room, not just what they want to show you.

I WARN YOU: No wildnerness program, therepuetic boarding school program, behavior modification program, boot camp, or other alternative therapy has ever been validated in an empirical peer reviewed study, whether for long term or even short term behavioral improvements. They are NOT staffed for, capable of, or designed to treat diagnosed psychological problems, despite their claims to the contrary. Problems like depression, adhd, add, ocd, bipolar disorder, standard teenage angst, and Terets syndrome cannot be treated or "fixed" by these programs and despite the appearance of short term improvements, over the long term these problems will either be made worse or unchanged.
 

DO NOT BELIEVE A WORD FROM ANYONE ON STRUGGLINGTEENS.com because many of the worst programs (more like cults) that have hurt hundreds of kids and destroyed families are listed and recomended there. Mr. Woodbury (the operator of the website) once described a program by saying "the feeling of safety here is almost tangible." About a year later the camp owner/operator was sentenced to 40 years for 121 counts of sexual abuse, fraud, and grand larceny. He has also recomended several other facilities like Alldredge Academy that are on the way to being shut down as we speak, with the owner just recently indicted for felony negligence in the death of a student.

The program supporters on that website's message boards are totally brainwashed. Almost everyone who posts to that board still has their kid in the program and despite their claims they seldom see how their kid is really doing. Looking at the msg board just for wildnerness programs, it is no surprise that almost every parent on that board sent their kid to a long-term program afterwards.  

Among the parent companies that they have supported and still do support are CEDU and WWASP/TeenHelp, easily the most brutal, and cult-like, of the bunch.

Before sending your kid anywhere, I challenge you to examine your motivations first. Often times these programs prey upon parent's desires for a quick fix or wanting to be absolved of responsibility.

"The thing is: sometimes people walk away because they want to be alone, and sometimes they walk away because they want to see if you care enough to follow them into hell."-Babylon 5 Shadow Dancing

[ This Message was edited by: FaceKhan on 2002-02-25 22:02 ]

[AParent]

Many thanks for the informative reply.

The parent company for Aspen Achievement Adademy is Aspen Health Services.  In the infomation packet we received, the program is stated to be accredited by the Council on Accreditation and recognized by JACHO.  It is recognized by the Utah State Dept of Education. Does any of this really mean anything? I have made inquiries to the Dept of Human Services in Utah concerning the progam an am awaiting a response from the licensing agent.

I agree with you.  I do not believe any wilderness program, boarding school, or behavior modification program is a fix for the problems faced by teens.  I have the same concerns and reservations that you do about sending my child to a far off place in hopes of being helped by others.  Will my child be physically/emotionally safe? Will the effects of such a program be beneficial or detremental to his/her emotional well-being? I think of myself as a responsible parent and
want to gather as much information on the various programs before making any decisions.
As a medical professional, I do know I don't have the clinical skills required to help my child through many of the issues she faces, that is why I want to find a program that is best matched for her needs.  She realizes she needs help to build her self-esteem and learn to understand and control her impulsivity that has led her down a path of self-destruction but has not been willing to open up or trust anyone to help her. I want her to see the bright young woman with great potential that she is.

Again thank you for the reply.  I will look into the site you listed. Any other thoughts or information on the subject would greatly be appreciated.

[FaceKhan]

Based on the information I found the program website. Just going on what I see there, I am prone to be skeptical. It is almost indistinguishable from websites for programs that have been shown to be dangerous.



One good example is the wide variety of problems they claim to treat and what they consider to be an idicator that a teen needs "treatment":

LOW SELF-ESTEEM

LACK OF MOTIVATION

MANIPULATION

DEPRESSION

ACADEMIC UNDERACHIEVEMENT

SUBSTANCE ABUSE

DEFIANCE OF AUTHORITY

ATTENTION DEFICIT AND HYPERACTIVITY



While it is believable on some level that a hike in the woods could help things like low-self esteem, underachievment and lack of motivation, I would be suspicious about claims that it can treat things like Substance abuse (presumably an addiction), ADD/ADHD and depression which are considered by many to be genuine diseases in the United States.  



Disrespect for authority, that sounds like just about every American from 2-102. Children and teens just have more authority figures to dislike. Don't take it personally.



Manipulation is another red flag in my view because often abusive programs will claim that a teen is just being manipulative when they claim that the program is abusive or that they are hungry or that the staff are cruel. Programs often use this as an excuse to censor mail, monitor telephone conversations, and even monitor visits. Another red flag is their "flexible admission period" which means that although the program might claim to be for 30, 60 or 90 days or even 6 months, they may very well manipulate you into keeping your kid with them for 1-3 years or refer you to longer term programs after which they are affiliated with, unbeknownst to you.



Utah regulations for these programs are also very weak, although certainly better than none at all. For instance, the minimum daily calorie requirements in the regulations is 1900 per day (last I checked). Teenagers can require almost twice that, particularly on a strenuous hike through rough terrain.

Another feature of the Utah regs is very little enforcement once a program is licensed because many of the people appointed to oversee enforcement were friendly with the program operators.



They, like many other questionable programs, keep their therapy methods vague and full of various program language. The four phases are very similar to other fraudulent programs. The phases and the description of the phases is in many cases very vague, and even the relatively straight forward activities listed can be interpreted many ways.



The last and most disturbing thing I can see is : "Gives and receives appropriate feedback to/from others. " from the buffalo phase (http://www.aspenacademy.com/buffalo.html). Any straight survivor and especially survivors of the TeenHelp or CEDU cult-programs will tell you that feedback means  berating a person for their failings. It means getting in their face and bringing them to tears and continuing until they feel sick. This is what Straight and many other programs since have meant by "therapy", the healing process, emotional growth.



The entire buffalo phase disturbs me: Things like: Calls groups when conflict arises

Confronts others appropriately. Assists new Coyotes in adjusting to group

Write a letter of responsibility to parents and share in group.



Group Awareness is a term for the cult-like phenomenon that takes place in many abusive programs. It means the breakdown of individual will and the introduction of group-think to that person. By the end of the program the way a person percieves the world is in its relation to the group and not to himself. Breaking a person down involved such things as sharing intimate thoughts, feelings and secrets with the group and often being "confronted" (read: tormented) by the group for them.  "Calling the group when conflict arises" is a nice way of saying that students no longer think for themselves, and they require the group to think for them.

Helping other students adjust is program language for helping to restrain the new students, and organized bullying on selected targets.



No matter how nice the brochure and how wonderful the program sounds, just remember that these programs are expertly marketed and they can and have made a concentration camp, complete with stun-gun weilding guards, in 105 degree Mexican heat with no toilet facilities out to be a beach-side paradise resort with sailboats and tennis courts.




At best these wildnerness programs can be fun and perhaps give a teen the time away from home that can be useful to strengthening themselves as individuals.

But for the bad ones and there are probably far more bad ones than good ones. They range from a fraud/confidence game where money is the motivation to an abusive cult in which parents and teens become unassuming members of the cult often with devastating results for families and especially the teens themselves. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is common among survivors of bad programs


_________________
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?" Babylon 5-A Late Delivery from Avalon

[ This Message was edited by: FaceKhan on 2002-02-26 21:23 ]

[yahamet]

AParent,

I applaud you for researching the program before making a decision.  As a parent, physician, and survivor of Straight, Inc., and based on the information in the website about this program, I also am very skeptical.  If you love your child, don't put her in a place that is not equipped to recognize and treat her according to the best medical knowledge we have about substance abuse and psychological or psychiatric disease.  

After almost 20 years, I still suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome, despite appearing very normal to other people.  It has also destroyed any hope for a good relationship with my parents; even my siblings are emotionally scarred from the experience.  And we are the fortunate ones, I guess.  Please keep your daughter in a place that will be safe and not destroy her, a place that will truly help her.  Forced separation of parent and child is not good, and supervised communication cannot be trusted.

Regarding JCAHO accredidation, hospitals spend a lot of time preparing for the big day JCAHO visits, in order to make a great impression.  Once they're gone, they go back to the usual routine.  It's better than nothing, but I wouldn't give it more weight than it is worth.

Best of luck.

[twistdwile]

all of your replies are very frustrating and quite funny for the simple fact that you speak on a topic that you know nothing about.  have any of you been to a wilderness program, or better yet worked in one?  if not, please don't speak on a topic that you know nothing about.  if anyone wants Real information on the Aspen Achievement Academy please feel free to ask!

[FaceKhan]

Gee we are speaking about a topic we know nothing about kinda like lawyers, businessmen, con-artists and hiking enthusiasts claiming to know about therapy and emotional growth.



Have I ever been to a wilderness program? No

Have I ever worked for one? No.



But I do know a lot of people who are no better off after their $20,000 forced march through the woods than they were going in and quite a few people who had a bad experience with it.



Its a dangerous fad and those who run the programs who claim some special knowledge of how to deal with teens are blowing smoke at best and creating their own cults at worst.





Isn't nice to hear from parents who have yet to send their kids off to some potential hell hole and are asking around about it? That is so much better than reading posts from parents and relatives of the disapeared asking if the program the kid is at is safe after six months of starvation and brainwashing?  
_________________
"You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?" Babylon 5-A Late Delivery from Avalon

[ This Message was edited by: FaceKhan on 2002-09-28 21:50 ]

[twistdwile]

just to humor me what would be your you way of helping these at-risk teens?  tell me what is the difference between wilderness therphy and boot camp?

[Antigen]

What would I do? Well, if I had the kind of money at my disposal to send my daughter to one of these places, I might take it and go hike the AT WITH her. With the cash we'd have leftover, I suppose we'd go and pursue whatever interests we may have discussed during the walk.

But I never had that kind of money. So, instead, I just kept the lines of communication open and kept reminding her that, contrary to what her psycho boyfriend kept telling her, we do still love her very deeply and her old friends do too.

The bottom line, though, is that when a kid decides that they'll no longer accept the authority of their parents there's really not a whole lot we can do to control them. You have to let them go sometimes and take their own lumps. What's so hard about that? There are 6 billion of us on this planet with several thousands of years worth of history that do not include Synanon based thought reform. How do you suppose the human race has managed to survive this long without the convenience of paying professionals to rough up our children when they step out of line?

[FaceKhan]

Well the question kinda reminds me of when I was 15 and despite having a good time at sleep away camp that year I wanted to come home at the 6 week mark instead of staying the extra 11 days or so till the end. I mainly was not getting along with my buck mates who for whatever reason did not get along with me. Now in retrospect it was probably because I was the one being an asshole considering that I was clinically depressed and my parents were breaking up.



When I called my Dad and told him I wanted to leave early, he was not too happy with it and he did not see why I could not stay for the extra two weeks. The Director got on the phone and said something to the effect of "Dr. Gerber, you can tell a 10 year old he has to stay at camp but not a 15 year old."



So my dad relented and I came home on the 6 week bus.



  When I went home things were fine until 2 weeks into school when I essentially stopped going except on the odd day when my therapist managed to convince me I should go. My parents were desperate to find something to do about it and so was I. I found that school and anxiety over it was the source of many of my problems and that I had always been unhappy and hindered by it. I read a book on unschooling and convinced my parents to let me try it.



I think things turned out a lot better my way than if they had sent me off to thought reform concentration camp.



What would I do if I were a parent of a teen who was getting into trouble. It depends on the trouble I suppose. Thats one problem with these programs they claim to be a panacea.



If my kid had a serious actual drug addiction I would probably try to get them into legitimate minimalist treatment as inobtrusive as possible. But actual drug addiction among juveniles is not that high since their drugs of choice, Marijuana, MDMA, and Hallucinogens are not generally addictive.



More likely you mean behavior problems, well I do not know what I would do. If money were no object I would probably send him or her out on an adventure of their choosing, whether it be roaming through Europe, or climbing everest. 20,000 bucks buys a lot of plane tickets, food, and shopping, I would prefer that my kid spend it rather than some charlatan who makes his money abusing kids.



I asked my parents to go to a therapist as do many teens I have talked to who have been depressed, that is one of the things I think people with depression can count on, you know you have a problem cause you can't think about anything else.



Program supporters always ask us what we would do since we are second guessing them. The problem is that program parents have already shown they do not have the patience to let the kid figure it out on his own. More often than not it is the parents who have the problem. Especially with the Teen Help, CEDU, Mountain Park, parents. Good parents would not surrender custody of their kids to some program that does not let them visit them or call them for 6 months. Obviously they are all too happy to wash their hands of responsibility. They always say the same thing "sending my kid to X was the hardest thing I ever did." kinda like that other lie "this is gonna hurt me more than it hurts you." Its a fantasy they have created in their mind, its actually the easiest thing they ever did, because it absolves them at least in their own mind of the responsibility.



Now if youll excuse me there is a free ice cream party in my dorm.








[ This Message was edited by: Facekhan on 2002-10-02 00:25 ]

[Antigen]

http://www.angelfire.com/d20/boardingsc ... ory.html#2

Or I suppose I just ran accross it.

[Infinity]

I don't see why anyone thinks that programs which separate the child from the parent are supposed to solve problems at home.

In all the family problems I've seen and been through, the child was only part of the problem. When my parents threatened to send me to a "boot camp", the problem was only partially mine: I was defiant, stubborn, and refused to accept their authority; but my stepdad also liked to beat me up, and my mom believed whatever he said, whether it was "I'm quitting smoking" (he never did) or "She fell down the stairs".

(Note: I was never sent to any sort of program, thank God. Two of my friends were; they're still recovering.)

Programs which separate parents and children either work only because they've brainwashed the child, or because the child never had a problem in the first place. Most of the time, I doubt they do anything but terrorizing an innocent teen.

And, even if that person were fully "cured", when they come back home, what happens? The parents, the environment, their friends, have not changed. Only part of the problem has been taken care of.

Abusive programs often play on the parent's need to be "right"; to say, "I didn't do anything wrong, he's just a bad kid and needs to be straightened out". Sometimes the problem (if there is one) really is due to the kid's choices, but in the majority of the time, the problem is at least partially the parents' fault.

Solution? Treat the whole family. If they want to take you out in the wilderness, fine; but they'd better take your parents, too. If they're running a boarding school, parents had better get visits whenever they want them. Or, better yet, stay at home and go to counseling/outpatient drug programs.

Oh, I know a lot of people want to take the easy way out--if the kid goes to a program, they no longer have to deal with him, and they can say it's not their fault he's "troubled". But look at it this way: Is it worth it, just for convenience, to send someone to a place which may scar them for life? I don't think so.

[Anonymous]

i went to aspen achievement academy this summer and its a great program i reccomend it for teens.  you hate it at first but now that im home i want to go back and work there. i made so many great friends and we still keep in touch its a great program!!!!!

[FaceKhan]

I hate to break it to you but that is what a lot of people say post wildnerness program. It may be a nice adventure and a vacation from your fucked up parents but it is still a $5000 (at most) camping trip claiming to be therapy for $20,000 a kid.

[twistdwile]

wow!  i really like the fact that you are still slamming a company, program and a proven treatment program without any knowledge of what really gopes on in this program.  i will tell you that my program works for the majority of the students that come through.   so once again please do no speak on a topic or about a company that you have never experienced, worked, or been apart of.