Christopher Columbus of Cults

[Anonymous]

There must be some mistake.  AARC is a unique program completely unlike Straight and Kids.  What you're describing sounds just like inmates at AARC being sent to Dr. Goldenarmstanhopeless, a once and now again AARC board member.  Accompanying the AARC inmates on such visits to the good AARC doctor were folks such as the Wiz's own step-daughter.
AARC inmates could be sent to AARC by the doctor's wife, Judge Cook Stanhopeless, and then enjoy the patient-doctor relationship with an AARC board member.
Cheers to Dr. Stanhope's medical ethics!  Huzzah!

I can't help but lump Dr. McMahon in with the other physician parents who put their offspring in Kids, since they chose to forsake legitimate medical treatment and place their children in a cult run by a complete amateur posing as a mental health expert.

are you referring to the same mental health expert that actually provides the help that other agencies (including those within the CHR umbrella) could not provide to these parents? oh sorry, that would be a yes, right. tell me, does your AARC grad think she would have just stopped using on her own at the time she entered AARC ? NOT likely . . she would still be visiting court rooms and making longterm friends with probation officers . . . you just don't get it, do you funnyboy



i love this thread . . . how come AARC works, even for kids that nothing else will work for???

[Anonymous]

   I can't help but lump Dr. McMahon in with the other physician parents who put their offspring in Kids, since they chose to forsake legitimate medical treatment and place their children in a cult run by a complete amateur posing as a mental health expert.

are you referring to the same mental health expert that actually provides the help that other agencies (including those within the CHR umbrella) could not provide to these parents? oh sorry, that would be a yes, right.

AARC is doing the same activities as those who work for the Calgary Health Region when it comes to the treatment/rehabilitation of kids? Interesting how those who work for the CHR need accreditation and licensing as well as having to follow the regulations of the HEALTH ACT.

Sounds like a confirmation that AARC "staff" is performing "Restricted Activities" that must only be performed by legitimate professionals.

I don't believe that is legal.

[TheWho]

AARC is doing the same activities as those who work for the Calgary Health Region when it comes to the treatment/rehabilitation of kids? Interesting how those who work for the CHR need accreditation and licensing as well as having to follow the regulations of the HEALTH ACT.

Sounds like a confirmation that AARC "staff" is performing "Restricted Activities" that must only be performed by legitimate professionals.

I don't believe that is legal.

AARC uses a brand new mode of treatment completely unrelated to Kids, and thus Straight. Dean Vause is a licensed mental health professional. He obtained his PhD after completing a lengthy period of clinical research. The Clinical staff at AARC is composed of licensed mental health professionals, as is the Peer Staff. The Clients stay in host homes in which they are continually monitored by adults who have been vetted to ensure the safety of their adolescent charges. The treatment involves the most modern, scientifically proven methods. Clients in AARC are never deprived of their rights, and are free to communicate with their friends and family throughout their stay in AARC. There is not now, nor has there ever been a punishment phase in AARC called Zero Club in which other clients are given total control of Newcomers, monitoring them while they bathe and move their bowels.
AARC's expenditures are entirely in keeping with a facility that keeps 30-36 adolescents during the day.
Since the Peer Counselors are all trained professionals, there is no risk of the Peer Counselors inflicting harm upon their charges. Likewise, because AARC does not use the Oldcomer/Newcomer dynamic that was used in Straight and Kids, the potential for abuses by Oldcomers was avoided.
Sorry to disappoint.

[Anonymous]

Just reading through all of the forums on this site, I never even new this site existed.

I was a client at AARC in 94 and went on for 3 years afterwards as a counsellor.  I have always though of AARC (after I finally left and integrated into the real world) as very "Cult Like" and the more I read into it now, it sure makes sense.  Quite a few of our initial counsellors were from Kids...and I don't think anyone had any real experience to treat us.  It was truly a bizarre place, and really hard to explain, unless you have been through it.  It wasn't until years later that I truly started to question many of the methods...and all of the top staff that STILL work there were all in treatment when I was there and have never left - Dean has molded them into exactly what he preaches...I find it really sad actually that they are still there after all these years, they were all really great people, but they are so caught in a treatment bubble.  Even the parent counsellors are former parents....wierd...and sad.

I do believe that we do need good treatment facilities in Canada for addiction, but we need people that are qualified and not abusive.  Many clients that I worked with when I worked there had so many serious issues (child abuse, rape, etc) and we really did nothing with any of it, perhaps this is the reason many of them were using drugs at the time.  Adolescent addiction is tough to diagnose.....If we would have taken everyone from highschool back in those days, I am sure half of the school would have been admitted back then with the checklist criteria for entry.

[Anonymous]

Hi Morgan, I'm curious how you found out about Fornits? There are LOTS of people in the same situation as yourself.

Please visit these websites, articles and groups if you haven't seen them, and there is an online petition for clients and former clients of AARC here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/AARCSurv/petition.html

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/2008-2009/powerless/

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/02/13/abuse.html

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/ ... state.html

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/story.html

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/article/3174 ... need-help-

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/252786/anyon ... th-estate/

AARC was recently discussed in the Alberta Legislature you can view that here:

http://media.assembly.ab.ca/ArchiveVide ... _Video.asf (forward to 39:15 to avoid watching the WHOLE thing)

[Anonymous]

Wrong link I'm sorry, view the assembly here:

http://media.assembly.ab.ca/ArchiveVide ... _Video.asf

starts at 39:15

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how/if it's possible to access Vause's and Miller-Newton's theses? Oh, how I would love to compare the two.

The PhD is defined in terms of knowledge, e.g. “The degree is awarded to candidates who, through original investigation, make a distinct and significant contribution to knowledge.” That new knowledge is expected to have two characteristics: it is shared and it can be verified or challenged. So a PhD describes knowledge that is new (in the world), can be shared with others and can be tested in some way.

Doesn't Vause claim to have invented "host homes" and family involvement in adolescent substance abuse treatment? Does anyone know exactly how long he stuck around KIDS for? 6 months?

[Anonymous]

The most convincing evidence for Dean Vause's supernatural abilities is his capacity to time travel.  Dean travelled back in time to 1957 and invented the Synanon group confronation.  He again went back in time and invented the oldcomer-newcomer dynamic and the use of host homes.  After assuming the reins of the renamed Kids of the Canadian West, in 1994 Dean Vause once more travelled back in time to 1991, designing AARC around his research before opening it in 1992.  Truly, we are all blessed to bear witness to this divine individual.

[TheWho]

So it seems overwhelmingly that the only issue people have with AARC has is that Dean Vause received a PhD?  and didnt receive it in Canada.....Okay?  So if he decided to stick with not furthing his education everyone would be fine with the place.  Isnt there anything else wrong with AARC other than this Vause guy getting a PhD?  Seems kind of lame.  I think the whole college hockey thing was much more interesting.

[Anonymous]

Yes guest, other than that we all think that AARC is a wonderful place.  :ftard:

[Anonymous]

Well, in defensive of the great dodgeball master, he wasn't Executive Director the whole time.  If we believe AARC, the Wiz worked on his Project for four years.  So he was researching his PhD while he bounced between NJ, Vancouver, and Calgary, conducting his basement exorcisms and founding AARC.  Lucky for the Wiz he was enrolled at the Union Institute, and not a school like the University of Calgary, where a PhD candidate must complete a 1600 hour predoctoral clinical internship.  Unless time spent in Miller Newton's cult was a clinical internship.  Depending on the day though, Dean-o may claim AARC was started in 1990, or '92.  It's 1990 if the main concern is to convey his experience, '92 if he's trying to hide the fact that AARC is Kids.

[TheWho]

Yes guest, other than that we all think that AARC is a wonderful place.  :ftard:

no need to be sarcastic.  Look at the posts of the past few weeks... The Wiz received a Phd from a paper mill......  one article written 10 years ago says he is a psycologist.  who cares if he thinks he is God for fucking crying out loud?  If there were kids getting hurt or abused or rapped at AARC I think that would be at the forefront but it is not... so we can conclude that the kids are safe and getting the help they need so all we can focus on is what hockey team this Vause guy played on and what school he got a degree from?
Out of the hundreds who went thru there there are 2 or 3 who have a problem with how they were treated and decide to retaliate by making fun of the front office people.  Do you know how dumb this looks?  Its pure high school... who the fuck cares if this guy even went to school?

[Anonymous]

http://www.aarc.ab.ca/images/media/before/rescuefroma.pdf

Where to start?  This article calls the AARC program "the only one of its's kind in North America."  Except for Straight, Kids, Kids Helping Kids, Pathways, Life and the other TCs, some closed down, some waiting to be closed.

http://www.aarc.ab.ca/fundraising/Novem ... letter.pdf

"Yesterday
AARC was created as a community response to growing recognition of the need for a Calgary based intensive treatment program for chemically dependent adolescents. A powerful combination of concerned parents, members of Calgary‟s Downtown Rotary Club, and the Provincial Government established AARC in the early 1990‟s. Dr. F. Dean Vause was hired to develop a clinical model that could reach these severely addicted youth. He had set out to find a solution to the dark disease after losing 3 students to drugs and alcohol in a high school, where he was a counsellor. His doctoral thesis was the development of a therapeutic process and recovery centre for chemically dependant youth and their families ~ a blueprint for AARC"

In 1998 Dean-o was the "founder of AARC".  In 2006 AARC turned out to have been founded by members of the Downtown Rotary Club, concerend parents, and the Provincial Government.  Vause did not write a thesis.  He submitted something called a "Project Demonstrating Excellence"  to the Union Institutee.
"F Dean Vause PhD 1994  The Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre: A Treatment Centre for Chemical Dependent Youth and Their Families"
http://www.tui.edu/directories/default.asp?
sortcol=focus&printme=1&dirCat=PDE

AARC opened in 1992.  Vause got his PhD in 1994.  Apparently he wrote up a blueprint after he opened AARC.  As a rule, one follows plans to construct something, rather than drawing up a "blueprint" after construction.  But then again, all he had prior to opening AARC was a year or so as an underling in Miller Newton's cult.  

"MR. NELSON: Mr. Speaker, AADAC has been involved with assistance in developing the program of the Alberta > since its
inception originally as Kids of the Canadian West."

http://www.assembly.ab.ca/net/index.asp ... =doc&fid=1

[TheWho]

Yes guest, other than that we all think that AARC is a wonderful place.  :ftard:

no need to be sarcastic.  Look at the posts of the past few weeks... The Wiz received a Phd from a paper mill......  one article written 10 years ago says he is a psycologist.  who cares if he thinks he is God for fucking crying out loud?  If there were kids getting hurt or abused or rapped at AARC I think that would be at the forefront but it is not... so we can conclude that the kids are safe and getting the help they need so all we can focus on is what hockey team this Vause guy played on and what school he got a degree from?
Out of the hundreds who went thru there there are 2 or 3 who have a problem with how they were treated and decide to retaliate by making fun of the front office people.  Do you know how dumb this looks?  Its pure high school... who the fuck cares if this guy even went to school?

I do agree with you that it is a little obsessive for someone to go thru years of articles to try to find a typo or interview mistake and then try to present this as evidence that a program is somehow harmful because of it is a bit naive.  But what do you do if you feel deep in your heart that AARC harms people yet almost all the graduates claim they were helped by AARC?
You have to drop into some sort of denial and If you cant get the support of the graduates then you have to try to dig up dirt or inconstancies and try to base you argument on those findings and I think that is what we are seeing here.

[Anonymous]

First of all, if you were to take a survey of the first 100 graduates, I assure you that AARC's success rate would be quite different. My guess would be that 85% of them are successful, employed and/or educated social drinkers who firmly disagree with AARC and everything that goes on there. I know that all of you recent graduates think that AARC saved your lives, but trust me, you'll probably grow out of that.
The general point that people are trying to make is that Dean lies. He lied when he said that he invented the AARC model and that it was unique. And as far as the Union Institute goes, it meets the criteria to be considered a diploma mill. I'm really not sure how they managed to get accredited in the States since they have absolutely no regard for basic standards of education. Maybe, like AARC, they have influential friends with deep pockets. If I thought that it was remotely possible that Dean's thesis would have been accepted at any respectable university, I would give him that. However, the main requirement of earning a PhD is to contribute new knowledge to the world. Dean didn't come up with the model for AARC - there were many quacks before him with the very same idea. As far as I know, Canada does not recognize Dean's PhD, and neither do I. I believe he misleads people every time he refers to himself as "Dr.Vause." Even if he had a PhD from a university that this country recognizes, I would think that someone in his position should be a medical doctor/psychiatrist. That's just my opinion - if you claim to be capable of treating a life-threatening disease, I don't care how long your chapbook of poetry was.
He lied on the Fifth Estate when he said that no abuse has ever been brought forward to him. Besides the criminal allegations, I remember dozens of incidents of abuse in host homes that Dean was aware of. What's the first and most important rule? Honesty. Those newcomers get verbally and emotionally battered every day for "not getting honest." Why should we expect any less from Dean?
I hear more and more allegations of abuse at AARC all the time. It's astounding how many people have tried to get over AARC in silence, thinking that it was their fault or that no one would believe them. Sorry this topic isn't juicy enough for you, but I'm sure people feel that this is neither the time, nor the place to tell the world what they've been through.