NOTICE TO POTENTIAL PARENTS

Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Hyde Schools

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Anonymous:
Sorry it took me so long (two days?!?) to post...
I don't check this board everyday.

As far as your concern about mental health professionals...it has nothing to do with your post about the heart attack incident, that I responded to.

Hyde is NOT a therapy school. It offers an alternative to a therapy situation. When a family interviews with Hyde, it is made VERY clear that if the family wants to be a part of the Hyde community and wants to work towards change in the Hyde perameter...than they should go for it. It is made VERY clear that Hyde is not a therapy school and does not offer on campus professional mental health counselling, but if they want to augment their Hyde experience with therapy, it is available in town, but doesn't play a part in their actual Hyde experience.

Also...Don MacMillan did NOT leave for plagerism...it was an incident with Paul Hurd, who is still at the school. Don left to get his Masters in Substance Abuse Counseling.

I am a former Hyde parent.

Thank you...Again I apologize for spelling and tardiness

Anonymous:

--- Quote ---On 2005-11-20 15:14:00, Anonymous wrote:

"Sorry it took me so long (two days?!?) to post...

I don't check this board everyday.

As far as your concern about mental health professionals...it has nothing to do with your post about the heart attack incident, that I responded to.

Hyde is NOT a therapy school. It offers an alternative to a therapy situation. When a family interviews with Hyde, it is made VERY clear that if the family wants to be a part of the Hyde community and wants to work towards change in the Hyde perameter...than they should go for it. It is made VERY clear that Hyde is not a therapy school and does not offer on campus professional mental health counselling, but if they want to augment their Hyde experience with therapy, it is available in town, but doesn't play a part in their actual Hyde experience.

Also...Don MacMillan did NOT leave for plagerism...it was an incident with Paul Hurd, who is still at the school. Don left to get his Masters in Substance Abuse Counseling.

I am a former Hyde parent.

Thank you...Again I apologize for spelling and tardiness"

--- End quote ---

Thank you for your reply; I appreciate it . (I should clarify that I'm the one who asked about Hyde's approach to kids with mental health issues. I did not raise the issue involving Don MacMillan or the heart attack incident. I don't know anything about that.)

With regard to the mental health issues, I certainly understand that Hyde doesn't advertise itself as a therapeutic school. Now that our family has been affiliated with Hyde for more than 2 years, we've learned something we did not know when we enrolled: A VERY significant percentage of Hyde students struggle with major mental health issues. Thus far we've encountered students diagnosed with eating disorders, bipolar disorder, depression, self-harming behavior (cutting), substance abuse, Tourette's syndrome, OCD, borderline personality disorder, etc. We have encountered quite a few students whose struggles at Hyde (behavioral, academic, etc.) clearly seem to be related to their mental health problems. We've talked with a number of parents who are also amazed that Hyde accepts so many of these kids who clearly need a mental health component built into their experience. My spouse and I have now chatted with quite a few parents who are disgusted with Hyde's shortsiighted approach to this portion of the student population.

Yes, some kids have attitude problems that must be addressed. But many Hyde kids have problems that are so much more severe than plain attitude issues; they're dealing with complex mental health problems that interfere with their performance at Hyde. Hyde naively deals with this by imposing 2-4 and sending kids to wilderness. We've also talked with a number of very experienced educational consultants who are equally horrified by Hyde's approach to these very complicated kids.

That's why we've decided to divorce ourselves from Hyde. That's why many families get out, it appears. In our view any parent whose kid struggles with these mental health issues would make a huge mistake if they enroll their kid at Hyde. We've now learned of other schools that have a MUCH more enlightened, thoughtful, approach. That's where we've decided to head

TheWho:
There are parents who are seeking help for their child but do not want them in therapy or to see a mental health professional. Maybe it is a stigma of some sort, but there is a school of thought that feels a child can be helped by simply changing their environment (or by removing them from the one they are in). Depends on the parents point of view

Anonymous:

--- Quote ---On 2005-11-20 16:20:00, Anonymous wrote:

"There are parents who are seeking help for their child but do not want them in therapy or to see a mental health professional. Maybe it is a stigma of some sort, but there is a school of thought that feels a child can be helped by simply changing their environment (or by removing them from the one they are in). Depends on the parents point of view"

--- End quote ---

Obviously some parents seek help for their child that doesn't involve mental health professionals. That's their prerogative. The bottom line, however, is that many Hyde kids do not succeed there (look at the attrition rate and failure-to-graduate rate) and a major reason appears to be that they get "off track" because of their untreated or mistreated mental health issues. For Hyde staff to believe that a kid who has major depression, bipolar disorder, OCD, etc. is struggling only because of an "attitude" problem is incredibly naive. That's a major reason why so many educational consultants refuse to send kids to Hyde.

The Gauld philosophy may work with a narrow range of kids, but it's widely believed that Hyde's high attrition rate is due partly to the mismatch between the school's model and the mental health needs of many kids who start there. Adding to the problem is that Hyde's seminars often involve disclosure of remarkably sensitive, intimate details in groups run by teachers and other staff who have little or no training in the handling of such complicated mental health issues. So, while Hyde says it doesn't do therapy, its clumsy and negligent handling of mental health issues is what is leading to Hyde's controversial and, in many circles, very poor reputation.

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