An RTC that isn't a program would:
1) allow unfettered communication between child and parent
2) have no point or level system or if it does have one, it is only reward-based.
3) only use restraint if someone is a threat to self or others and have restraint instances only once every few months, not once a day or even once a month, depending on population. Only trained personnel would carry out restraints and each restraint would be required to result in a full staff meeting to see how it could have been prevented.
4) aim at minimizing length of stay, anything more than 2 months would be suspect except in cases of severe mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar
5) work only with kids with particular diagnoses, not general "troubled teens"-- ideally be specialized to bipolar only, or ADD-only, etc.
6) be founded and run by an MD, with line staff having Master's degrees or above and no groups run by kids
7) not allow kids to have any say in the disciplining of other kids unless it was something like a mock jury trial regarding a particular incident and this was carefully supervised to avoid simply penalizing kids with poor social skills for this fact
never have "seminars" or "marathons"
9) never use confrontation or humiliation or attack therapy and always be aimed at building empathetic relationships all around
10) never use corporal punishment
11) have an on-site ombudsman whose sole job is to deal with patient complaints and take them extremely seriously
12) always err on the side of believing medical complaints, even if this means some "fakery" goes undected
13) treat troubled kids as though their problems are the result of pain and negative experiences, not as though they are the result of poor discipline or bad behavior
14) err in the direction of believing the kids are well-intentioned-- have them live up to high expectations, not down to low ones while also realizing that humans change slowly and erratically, not in a linear, straight road to improvement fashion.
15) use techniques like massage, music and movement and animal therapies that are designed to help kids deal with trauma that is nonverbal
16) focus on increasing the quality and number of the child's relationships, knowing that emotional connectedness and support are critical to recovery
17) be located close enough to the child's home that parents can visit frequently and ongoing care can be coordinated
18) be humble enough to realize that current practices are probably not best practices and that strong, new evidence should be incorporated into treatment when it becomes available
19) constantly be self-evaluating to help discern best practices and ideally, publish research on them
20) encourage critical thinking and skepticism in both staff and patients, not blind obedience and have an open, warm atmosphere that is obvious from the moment anyone sets foot in the place.
