As far as being an unlicensed facility...... maybe they dont need to be licensed.
This, just one small aspect of the whole problem.
You're right. They don't need to be licensed. If you read about what AARC does, what they claim etc., don't you think a place like that should need to have a license?
As Psy said, AARC is almost identical to Straight, Kids, KHK, etc.
The AARC stays afloat by hovering in the gray area, by manipulating the situation and information provided to suit their needs best in any given situation. They use an aspect of one law or act to avoid accountability to another.
Let's take host homes for example.
Should need a license through the social care facility act. Foster homes need a license. Yet AARC claims to be "outpatient" to avoid doing this. AARC says they are not "residential" that they use a volunteer "host home" situation of generous parents of other clients to house their clients. These kids go from the center to a host home and back to the center. Even though they don't live at the center, it essentially becomes a residential program.
AARC avoids accountability for this by saying the "host home" parents are volunteering their time/homes etc., to house these clients, but they're NOT. It's not voluntary, it's a requirement of the program.
They pretty much have to have it this way to stay operating the way they do.
See if AARC claimed to be a residential program, that's a whole new ball game! The host homes would need a license, a criminal record check, a child welfare check. It would be illegal to hold clients against their will. Child welfare acts would come into play having it illegal for a drug addict to be in a position of care over a minor.... etc., etc.
But AARC avoids ALL this by saying they are NOT a residential facility, but an outpatient facility.
This same situation can be applied to almost every aspect of the AARC program.
Malpractice?
Well, Although Vause says he's a doctor, parents believe he's an actual doctor until they learn otherwise, he holds a PhD. etc., AARC claims to treat a "disease", treat mental health issues etc., but yet they don't require licensing, accredited staff etc., like a hospital or a clinic would.
AARC escapes this by being a "Temperance" program, basically an AA group. But AA doesn't charge thousands of dollars per year. AARC also escapes this by not billing health care. The programs in the US that did this exact thing WERE licensed and DID charge medicaid etc. It's the same program basically, so why does one need to be licensed and the other not?
AARC being an independent program is not ran via AADAC or Health and Wellness, so no, they are NOT a clinic, they are NOT medical professionals, yet they DO claim to be!!!
I'd call that fraud.
And guest, all your talk about taking this to the police. The clients in AARC come to believe that anything happening to them is for their own good. (Please watch "Over the GW", or at the very least learn something about "thought reform") And even if a client wanted to talk to the police how could they?? And what graduate is going to call the police knowing full well their family is entrenched in AARC and they will be an outcast if they report anything? Or how about the lack of a likely prosecution because the justice system has become so entrenched with AARC over the last 20 years. Just because something has been going on for a long time doesn't make it OK.
Let's say a client tried to tell the police they were held against their will, for example. But maybe there was a court order saying they had to be there, police will do nothing. Or maybe the client is/was under 18 and their parents wanted them in the AARC because the AARC so thoroughly convinced the parent their kid would die if they took the kid out. The parents are desperate when they put their kid in AARC. AARC banks on this.
As for the media, which reporter is going to lose their job trying to pursue this because the corporate giant has been donating hundreds of thousands into this place over the last 20 years? There is also a tendency for people to just keep supporting something just because someone well known is supporting it. Look at Straight, Supported by presidents and princesses.
If THEY support it, it can't be bad, right?
Yet within 20 years it was found to be abusive, fraudulent, and ALL of the very things that AARC does, and even though it was supported by presidents and princesses, it was STILL shut down!
I'm sorry guest, it didn't happen overnight via a meeting with the police with or without an accompanying family member.
