Painting the Turd

[ajax13]

"How long has AARC worked with severely addicted teens?
 
AARC was established in 1992 and is an original model, utilizing a unique therapeutic process. It is based on the doctoral research conducted by Dr. Dean Vause and approved by his clinical and doctoral committees. As Executive Director of AARC, Dr. Vause reports to a governing board that is made up of some of Calgary's most accomplished business and professional people.
In 1989 members of the Calgary Downtown Rotary Club became interested in the treatment of adolescent drug users. Many Calgary adolescents were being sent to KIDS Inc., a treatment facility in New Jersey. The Rotary Club was concerned that there were no programs in Canada and believed that a facility providing intensive treatment for adolescent drug users should be established in Calgary.  After considerable investigation, the Club identified negative aspects of the KIDS Inc. treatment model.
      Dr. Ronald Dougan, a Registered Psychologist in the Province of Alberta, visited KIDS of Bergen County in 1989, on behalf of the Calgary Downtown Rotary Club.  He was a member of the committee which hired Dean Vause, and served as a consultant on Dean's doctoral committee.  He says of the AARC program:

“We very conscientiously and intentionally designed a program that was very different from the KIDS Inc. model.”
 
      Over twenty years ago, the need for treatment services in Alberta for severely addicted teens was great but little was available to address the life-threatening nature of the disease. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s several Alberta adolescents were sent to Kids Inc. At that time Dr. Dick Thompson was a senior administrator with Alberta Child Welfare. He co-ordinated funding for the Alberta families attending Kids Inc., but as he gained more experience with the program he became very concerned. He closely watched the development of AARC and became a strong supporter of the process, and states it is much different than Kids was:

“We discovered that New Jersey was very rigid and restrictive in restraining the adolescents . . . They weren’t honest in dealing with the families and with us. AARC is clinically honest and appropriate for the severe illness it is addressing . . . Dr Vause left that program (Kids Inc.) because the Kids approach was inappropriate and I believe he has been driven by that experience to ensure that the AARC program in no way reflects the negative and dishonest culture that was prevalent with Kids. Kids Inc. was not transparent. We had great difficulty with accessing treatment plans, progress reports . . . AARC has been extremely transparent – very willing to work with community resources and programs. AARC makes a significant effort to be a part of the community and integrates the expertise of other community- based professionals into their team.”
 
      Dr. Janne Holmgren, now a professor of Mount Royal College in the Department of Criminal Justice studies and a former staff member at AARC, attended and worked at Kids Inc. in the early 1990s. She strongly emphasizes that AARC and Kids Inc. are profoundly different:

“AARC is a treatment facility and organization which adheres to a governing board of directors and the legal community at large. Kids Inc. was not a treatment centre of any kind as it failed to include the community at large and excluded rather than included its clients into becoming fully responsible healthy youth and adults who could contribute to society at large.”
http://www.aarc.ab.ca/

No mention is made of the fact that these people established Kids of the Canadian West, the Rotary Club providing this organization wit $600k in late 1989, and the Province doing the same.  Mssrs. Dougan and co. did not return from Jersey and design a program that was very different from Kids, they tried to open Kids.

"On a daily basis, AARC closely guides and monitors the safety, security and healthy interactions between clients, siblings and parents in each Recovery Home."

How dey doo dat?

[Anonymous]

Can you site the source of those quotes, would be interested to take a look.

[Anonymous]

Why don't you try clicking on the link that is in the post.  Those quotes are now up on AARC's hastily assembled FAQ section of their web-site.  It is an incontrovertible fact that the people who went to Bergen County did not come back with the intention of establishing something other than Kids.  They set up Kids, got the money, arranged to acquire a building, had a Board of Directors, etc.
Here is proof positive of the existence of Kids of the Canadian West.  If you read the article, you will note that Terry Hill, head of PRIDE heartily endorses K of CW.  PRIDE was still involved with AARC as late as 1996.
http://www.kidsofbergencounty.com/canada11pic.htm

"MRS. MIROSH: Mr. Speaker, many of our young people from
Calgary are currently being treated by the program Kids of the Canadian West, a drug treatment centre in various areas
throughout the United States. There have been some controver­sial views reported regarding these programs in the United
States. Parents in my constituency of Calgary-
Glenmore have
expressed gratitude and, indeed, support for the government's initiative in helping their young people who are addicted to drugs. These same parents have expressed a concern regarding the cost and the length of the programs. Could the chairman of AADAC please give the Assembly a follow-
up as to the
establishment of the program that he announced in the city of Calgary a year or so ago and if that program will be continuing in Calgary?


MR. NELSON: Mr. Speaker, the U. S. program is operating
presently in New Jersey and in Utah. Those are the only two
operations they have. With the recommendation of AADAC the
government provided some matching moneys to the Kids of the Canadian West in Calgary to develop a program similar to the lines that were developed in the United States. However, I
might indicate that with the controversy that has developed in Calgary, prior to making a recommendation to the government
for matching funds to assist the development of this very needed program to assist those young people who are somewhat out of control and yet need the type of program that AADAC is not
providing, we believe we have put in place the checks and
balances that will encourage and offer a program in Alberta that meets with the laws of this land and also the integrity of the people that will utilize this program. Additionally, Mr. Speaker, the society that is running this program are people of integrity in the city of Calgary, and I'm sure they would not want their personal integrity put at risk by running a program that would not be in keeping with the well-
being of Albertans.


MRS. MIROSH: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My supplementary
is to the Minister of Education. Many of these young people
who enter the program are only 12 years old. Could the
Minister of Education indicate to the Legislative Assembly what would happen to these children's educational program? What
does the department provide to these young people either during or after the program?


MR. DINNING: Mr. Speaker, the chairman of AADAC has
quite properly and quite well outlined the problem that these young people face. These are young people, young men and
women, some in their early teens, some as young as the hon.
member has suggested, who are compulsively addicted to drugs. They are sick; they suffer from a serious illness. The School Act makes provision for children that suffer from an illness. It says in the Act that
a student is excused from attending school on a day on which the school is open if
( a) the student is unable to attend by reason of sickness or other unavoidable cause.
The same is true that the Act provides that the student is
excused if the parent shows sufficient cause to the board why the student should be excused, and the board then excuses the
student for a prescribed length of time.
Mr. Speaker, these kids, if they are in school today, arc failing miserably. More often than not, they are not in school; they arc on the streets, and they are suffering from their sickness. So we

158 Alberta Hansard March 20, 1990


recognize as a government that these are young people who are caught in drastic circumstances that require drastic action. We have supported that, supported the Kids of the Canadian West program, and that program will operate within the laws and rules of this province. I'm very proud of the leadership that our
government and, in particular, our Premier have taken in this drive, this fight against drugs and helping kids who've got this serious problem to get off being hooked on drugs."
http://isys.assembly.ab.ca:8080/isysquery/irl1940/5/doc

Here is a former and future staffer on the AARC operating within the laws and rules of this province:
Ben Goresky wrote
at 9:07pm on October 11th, 2007
"If you want to argue about the legality of AARC and what it does, I will agree with you that the laws in this province definitely don't cater to this kind of facility"

Ben Goresky wrote
at 9:12pm on October 11th, 2007
"It is an ambiguous area of the law for sure (there are laws that say AARC is legal, and others that say it isn't. nothing is clear)."

[Anonymous]

MRS. MIROSH: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My supplementary
is to the Minister of Education. Many of these young people
who enter the program are only 12 years old. Could the
Minister of Education indicate to the Legislative Assembly what would happen to these children's educational program? What
does the department provide to these young people either during or after the program?


MR. DINNING: Mr. Speaker, the chairman of AADAC has
quite properly and quite well outlined the problem that these young people face. These are young people, young men and
women, some in their early teens, some as young as the hon.
member has suggested, who are compulsively addicted to drugs. They are sick; they suffer from a serious illness. The School Act makes provision for children that suffer from an illness. It says in the Act that
a student is excused from attending school on a day on which the school is open if
( a) the student is unable to attend by reason of sickness or other unavoidable cause.
The same is true that the Act provides that the student is
excused if the parent shows sufficient cause to the board why the student should be excused, and the board then excuses the
student for a prescribed length of time.
Mr. Speaker, these kids, if they are in school today, arc failing miserably. More often than not, they are not in school; they arc on the streets, and they are suffering from their sickness. So we

158 Alberta Hansard March 20, 1990


recognize as a government that these are young people who are caught in drastic circumstances that require drastic action. We have supported that, supported the Kids of the Canadian West program, and that program will operate within the laws and rules of this province. I'm very proud of the leadership that our
government and, in particular, our Premier have taken in this drive, this fight against drugs and helping kids who've got this serious problem to get off being hooked on drugs."
http://isys.assembly.ab.ca:8080/isysquery/irl1940/5/doc

That's what I tried to tell the judge when I was sued for the umpteenth time!!!!!!!!   Damned druggie kids weren't in school anyway so we rounded 'em up and locked 'em up.  Y'know......for their own good.


http://thestraights.com/video/newton-co ... e-clip.ram

[Anonymous]

Here is more proof that the "explorers" who went to Jersey did not come away with the normal human disgust with Newton and friends, (that's you Dean-O).  Dinning still shows up at AARC beg-a-thons.  These folks came home in the Spring of '89 and tried to push Kids onto Calgary through the Provincial Government.  Thwarted, the Wiz lit out for BC, conducting good old fashioned Newtonian exorcisms in people's basements while commuting back and forth between BC and Calgary.
Despite the Wiz's claim that he bailed on Kids because it wasn't cool, the fact is that he worked there for many months.
Unlike the Wiz, who is a phys ed teacher, Sandi Levy Baberto showed up at Kids to do the same job as the Wiz.  She high-tailed out of Kids after a few days, and went straight to State authorities.  The Wiz settled right into the business of healing homosexuals and overeaters through shame.
http://www.kidsofbergencounty.com/C02-03-90.htm

[Anonymous]

Dr. Janne Holmgren, now a professor of Mount Royal College in the Department of Criminal Justice studies and a former staff member at AARC, attended and worked at Kids Inc. in the early 1990s. She strongly emphasizes that AARC and Kids Inc. are profoundly different:

“AARC is a treatment facility and organization which adheres to a governing board of directors and the legal community at large. Kids Inc. was not a treatment centre of any kind as it failed to include the community at large and excluded rather than included its clients into becoming fully responsible healthy youth and adults who could contribute to society at large.”
http://www.aarc.ab.ca/

Enthusiastic homophobe Janne seems a little confused as to who the board of directors is.  For years now, most Board Members are parents of clients.  One more example of how AARC is responsible only to AARC.  One exception is the esteemed Dr. Stanhope.  Dr. Stanhope has climbed back on board, no pun intended, of the AARC as it flounders.  Fans of AARC will recall that the Stanhopes provided a closed loop to AARC prisoners.  The only physician AARC patients could see was Dr. Stanhope, who had been on the Board previously.  His wife sat on the bench in Youth Court and shipped the prisoners off to AARC.  Thus, as an AARC client, you could discuss mistreatment with a former board member whose wife was responsible for sending you to AARC.  Les we forget, the good doctor had no qualms about allowing AARC to send it's emminently qualified peer counselors to sit in on an AARC client's not-so-confidential examinations.  

The link to the following is no longer active, but here is Marie Laing explaining what is wrong with Kids of the Canadian West.  Which never existed.  AARC still relies on the good ol' higher external locus of power for brain healin', and is still accountable only to the Board, which is made up of AARC people.  Ann McCaig excepted.  Still haven't figured that one out yet.  Astute readers will notice this debate dated May of 1990, or one year after Dinning, Dougan and pals went to New Jersey and found out that they didn't want Kids in Calgary.

"The next vote I would like to look at is vote 7: Kids of the Canadian West, funded by AADAC. I have grave concerns
about this program. I have raised it before. I have grave
concerns because of the treatment modality that is used. As far

1160 Alberta Hansard May 10, 1990


as I can tell, it teaches an external locus of control. It teaches through fear of punishment, and it does not teach children how to cope with life's stress. But further, I have concerns about violations of human rights legislation and the Child Welfare Act. I have raised this concern with the chairman of AADAC, and he has assured me that monitoring will be done to ensure that no human rights are violated and that the Child Welfare Act will not be violated. But he has not indicated when this monitoring will be done, by whom, and how. I would ask for the specifics of this process of monitoring.
I also know that AADAC has an assessment protocol to
determine appropriate placement and treatment modalities for young people who are involved in drug and alcohol abuse. I
have no sense and have been given no sense of the assessment procedures and protocols in place in this program. Is it simply a referral by parents that are extremely distressed with their child's behaviour? So again I would ask for assessments
procedures and protocols and who will do them."
http://isys.assembly.ab.ca:8080/isysquery/irl1940/1/doc