Deb-- I have openly shared my failings as a parent and as an adult with groups at both my son's programs, as well as a treatment group I was in in my town. My son has talked about his family issues with us present at group sessions. Of course it is tough to hear, but it's part of therapy.
I actually shared some of my family issues with The Wall Street Journal, and was quoted. I received several calls from social and business associates thanking me for my honesty. (this was way before my son was in a program)
So-you are heading the wrong way with that one, Deborah.
Huge difference between YOU sharing your failings and having your child IMPACT you in front of your friends and peers. Not nearly as humiliating when you pick and choose what you divulge. It's unethical.
These places "work" for some for the same reason jail works for some.
Huffines says it best:
Some of my patients are referred to me with a history of having been in a therapeutic boarding school. Once they have come to trust me they will share with me the kind of tales we find on this web site; horrific details of abusive and grossly inappropriate treatment. I have heard these stories too many times. The stories vary however. Occasionally I have heard some positive stories where a youth has been treated with respect and caring in an appropriately run facility, but even then it is against their will. I see very little evidence that even these kids have been helped. The bad stories prevail. I care deeply for youth I work with. I have a strong bias of positive regard for all youth I meet because I genuinely like adolescents. When I hear of mistreatment in facilities that are supposed to care for youth I feel the betrayal and see the harm it has done to my patient. My reaction has been one of extreme anger. This has mobilized me to be an activist in trying to address the system failings that allow these travesties to continue. How could any adult do differently if they are a decent human being and have normal instincts of care and concern for kids? It horrifies me that in our society we can enter into a mass denial that lets these facilities exist.....
Involuntary residential care outside of such a legal process cannot be therapeutic, no mater how humane and well intended the staff, as it undercuts and essential aspect of adolescent development, the achievement of autonomy. It is NOT therapeutic because the loss of rights does damage to a sense of self. It undercuts the formation of a personal identity. As with restraint and seclusion, it may be necessary to save a life, but it has a very large cost. It represents a failure, or an absence, of community-based treatment. In such circumstances, such active coercion needs to be ended in the shortest possible time, preferably only a few days. Individuals detained, even in a state of psychotic thinking, should be offered trauma support and counseling, similar to what is commonly recommended after an episode of restraint, to undo the damage caused by such coercion.
I personally believe that if our laws that protect youth rights in mental health and substance abuse treatment were changed from 13 to 16 or 18, the State of Washington would have a flood of locked residential programs emerge around Seattle just as in Idaho, Utah and Montana. I strongly believe that we will not solve the problem of unsafe, non-therapeutic, inappropriate residential treatment until youth are given rights to consent to care in all 50 states. If Idaho, Montana and Utah and all other states had such laws, and had strong Protection and Advocacy agencies in their states to assure adherence to such laws, we would not have the problems we do today and youth such as most of you would no longer endure the abuse and humiliation you have suffered....
http://cafety.org/index.php?option=com_ ... &Itemid=35
