CBC Fifth Estate AARC piece

[Anonymous]

Ahh Dr. Stanhope. He's currently (again) on the board of directors?

Doctor is the husband of the judge Cook Stanhope who sends kids to and keeps kids in AARC through the provincial court.

[Anonymous]

Another forum with some very interesting comments!

http://forums.beyond.ca/showthread.php? ... ost2817780

 :jawdrop:

[Anonymous]

The biggest problem I see with the program is you can't force someone to be willing.

Willingness is the key to changing and succeeding in a 12 step program. This is the reason this program doesn't work all that well in reality. Willingness to get out of a treatment center doesn't count.

[anonAARCgrad]

The biggest problem I see with the program is you can't force someone to be willing.

Willingness is the key to changing and succeeding in a 12 step program. This is the reason this program doesn't work all that well in reality. Willingness to get out of a treatment center doesn't count.

When the basic assumption upon intake is that the "client" is minmizing their usage of drugs and lying in general and that their "bottom needs to be raised" should show how the cards are stacked against the "client" from the git go. From the beginning, new clients are forced to make up past incidents if they are just plain too young to have the usage required to be an addict. THEIR MUST BE SIGNIFICANT USAGE FOR ANYONE TO BE ADDICTED TO DRUGS!!! Kids are adaptable - they quickly learn when to cry, how to discuss any real or made up usage and after a while it becomes habit. The majority of "sober" graduates I have met are on staff, highly judgemental of any one who relapses or does not toe the AARC line, participates in an amazing amount of Treatment Talk, uses self-critcal catch phrases and comes across as a cult member on leave. Sadly, in AA they are praised for coming forth so early in life and changing, not having to go through years of active addiction - but then how could they be addicts? Crazy.

[psy]

The biggest problem I see with the program is you can't force someone to be willing.

Willingness is the key to changing and succeeding in a 12 step program. This is the reason this program doesn't work all that well in reality. Willingness to get out of a treatment center doesn't count.

Wow.  Very well said.  It's one reason I oppose all forms of forced treatment.  It just plain and simple does not work.  Even 12 steppers proper will acknowledge that a person cannot be forced to take the first step.

[psy]

When the basic assumption upon intake is that the "client" is minmizing their usage of drugs and lying in general and that their "bottom needs to be raised" should show how the cards are stacked against the "client" from the git go. From the beginning, new clients are forced to make up past incidents if they are just plain too young to have the usage required to be an addict. THEIR MUST BE SIGNIFICANT USAGE FOR ANYONE TO BE ADDICTED TO DRUGS!!! Kids are adaptable - they quickly learn when to cry, how to discuss any real or made up usage and after a while it becomes habit. The majority of "sober" graduates I have met are on staff, highly judgemental of any one who relapses or does not toe the AARC line, participates in an amazing amount of Treatment Talk, uses self-critcal catch phrases and comes across as a cult member on leave. Sadly, in AA they are praised for coming forth so early in life and changing, not having to go through years of active addiction - but then how could they be addicts? Crazy.

Welcome to fornits anonAARCgrad.  Very good description of the program.  Just out of curiosity, did you ever start to believe your trumped up confessions or did you "fake it" all the way through the program?

[Anonymous]

The biggest problem I see with the program is you can't force someone to be willing.

Willingness is the key to changing and succeeding in a 12 step program. This is the reason this program doesn't work all that well in reality. Willingness to get out of a treatment center doesn't count.

When the basic assumption upon intake is that the "client" is minmizing their usage of drugs and lying in general and that their "bottom needs to be raised" should show how the cards are stacked against the "client" from the git go. From the beginning, new clients are forced to make up past incidents if they are just plain too young to have the usage required to be an addict. THEIR MUST BE SIGNIFICANT USAGE FOR ANYONE TO BE ADDICTED TO DRUGS!!! Kids are adaptable - they quickly learn when to cry, how to discuss any real or made up usage and after a while it becomes habit. The majority of "sober" graduates I have met are on staff, highly judgemental of any one who relapses or does not toe the AARC line, participates in an amazing amount of Treatment Talk, uses self-critcal catch phrases and comes across as a cult member on leave. Sadly, in AA they are praised for coming forth so early in life and changing, not having to go through years of active addiction - but then how could they be addicts? Crazy.

Yes the whole "raise the bottom" thing doesn't work... well, it didn't for me and many others I know.

[anonAARCgrad]

When the basic assumption upon intake is that the "client" is minmizing their usage of drugs and lying in general and that their "bottom needs to be raised" should show how the cards are stacked against the "client" from the git go. From the beginning, new clients are forced to make up past incidents if they are just plain too young to have the usage required to be an addict. THEIR MUST BE SIGNIFICANT USAGE FOR ANYONE TO BE ADDICTED TO DRUGS!!! Kids are adaptable - they quickly learn when to cry, how to discuss any real or made up usage and after a while it becomes habit. The majority of "sober" graduates I have met are on staff, highly judgemental of any one who relapses or does not toe the AARC line, participates in an amazing amount of Treatment Talk, uses self-critcal catch phrases and comes across as a cult member on leave. Sadly, in AA they are praised for coming forth so early in life and changing, not having to go through years of active addiction - but then how could they be addicts? Crazy.

Welcome to fornits anonAARCgrad.  Very good description of the program.  Just out of curiosity, did you ever start to believe your trumped up confessions or did you "fake it" all the way through the program?

I pretty much told the truth, but I put the spin on my past incidents to make them sound the way AARC wanted them to sound in order to progress. I expressed remorse when there was none, and when I attempted to talk about those areas of my life that where painful, they were always brought around to how I had used drugs. The issues I needed support with were never addressed, except as a  secondary or in a minor way. It took several years after being in AARC and on staff before I felt I was shaking off the control of AARC. Then I discovered the cover ups, lack of oversite and lust for money that really opened my eyes.

[psy]

I pretty much told the truth, but I put the spin on my past incidents to make them sound the way AARC wanted them to sound in order to progress. I expressed remorse when there was none, and when I attempted to talk about those areas of my life that where painful, they were always brought around to how I had used drugs. The issues I needed support with were never addressed, except as a  secondary or in a minor way. It took several years after being in AARC and on staff before I felt I was shaking off the control of AARC. Then I discovered the cover ups, lack of oversite and lust for money that really opened my eyes.

Yeah... that's the thing with these programs (Synanon based).  They believe that addiction is a "primary disease" and don't believe that anything could be causing those behaviors.  As such, the root causes of problems are never addressed.  Drugs are used as a scapegoat.

What cover-ups did you discover?

[psy]

I barely drank before program, but during program they managed to convince me that the little drinking I had done was a symptom of alcoholism.  They told me I was sick in the head and couldn't trust myself, etc etc...  I believed it for a while.  I believed I was fake and didn't know who I was.  So many programs operate in such a similar manner.

[psy]

LOL.  AARC just got busted on the comments section of the CBC article

tarastar wrote:Posted 2009/02/15
at 3:53 PM ET

There are many posts on this page taken from a facebook group in support of AARC, created by and populated with, AARC grads. What the moderators of that group aren't posting to the CBC board are all of the other comments that were deleted from that facebook group because they didn't commit to 100% unquestioning support of AARC. Just so you know, there are many more former clients of AARC who have similar complaints - not just the few that were on the Fifth Estate. I can and will personally corroborate some of the stories that have been told.

The religious fervour with which people want to protect AARC is disturbing. Regardless of what Dean Vause's intentions are, or the intentions of his staff, there are things inherent in the treatment model that open up the clients up to all kinds of abuses and their methods need to be properly investigated. If a teacher were to call a child names, or physically restrain a child, or push them up against a wall, wouldn't that teacher be fired? If a parent repeatedly and systematically threatens their child, isn't that considered abusive? So why are the people working at AARC allowed to operate this way? AARC staff repeatedly tell kids that they are breaking them down in order to build them back up. That's called brainwashing. That is behavioural conditioning. There should be various institutions in place to help kids with drug problems and kids with emotional problems - but those institutions should operate in an ethical manner that is consistent with medical research, under the direction of qualified and impartial professionals, under the scrutiny of outside governing bodies.

I was a client of AARC 15 years ago. I worked there as a peer counsellor for nearly 3 years. I am 31 years old today and I am still de-programming. The emotional damage from the brainwashing I experienced was paramount. My self-esteem was more damaged leaving than when I came in.I had incredible difficulty reintegrating into the community. That's one reason so many former clients never leave the protection of the AARC community. As for the 80% success rate - where did that number really come from? No one has ever surveyed me or any of my friends on what we're doing in our lives. Dean has been throwing that "success rate" out since 1994, never with any variation or proof, just a demand for trust. I would like to see some actual evidence for Dean's claims - evidence provided by an outside impartial entity.

AARC needs to be thoroughly investigated.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2009/02/ ... alcomments

Oh dear.. I hope they used proxies.  LOL.

[anonAARCgrad]

I pretty much told the truth, but I put the spin on my past incidents to make them sound the way AARC wanted them to sound in order to progress. I expressed remorse when there was none, and when I attempted to talk about those areas of my life that where painful, they were always brought around to how I had used drugs. The issues I needed support with were never addressed, except as a  secondary or in a minor way. It took several years after being in AARC and on staff before I felt I was shaking off the control of AARC. Then I discovered the cover ups, lack of oversite and lust for money that really opened my eyes.

Yeah... that's the thing with these programs (Synanon based).  They believe that addiction is a "primary disease" and don't believe that anything could be causing those behaviors.  As such, the root causes of problems are never addressed.  Drugs are used as a scapegoat.

What cover-ups did you discover?

Mostly their knowledge of major crimes committed by clients and graduates,  AARC's aiding of their defence and hiding behind "confidentiality" that is waived whenever it is to AARC's advantage. In fact there is no privacy requirement or expectation when a serious crime is committed - AARC is under obligation to report their knowlege but has been unwilling unless compelled by law.

[psy]

Mostly their knowledge of major crimes committed by clients and graduates,  AARC's aiding of their defence and hiding behind "confidentiality" that is waived whenever it is to AARC's advantage. In fact there is no privacy requirement or expectation when a serious crime is committed - AARC is under obligation to report their knowlege but has been unwilling unless compelled by law.

This is very similar to other allegations I've heard.  I don't blame any of the staff, though.  DV has them all good and brainwashed.  He is responsible for what is going on.  He is the cult leader.  I've been amazed at reading some of the comments on the CBC article.  Almost more than any program i've seen before, they seem to regard him as some sort of messiah.  If DV has this kind of hold over the kids, I fear what he might order them to do if he's pushed into a corner (rattelsnake, anybody?).

Phil, if you're reading this...  make sure to have your interns get your mail in the future...  LOL.

(if you didn't get that, it's a Synanon joke)

[psy]

On a serious note... Just how dedicated are the kids to DV.  How far would they go to protect him or AARC?

[anonAARCgrad]

On a serious note... Just how dedicated are the kids to DV.  How far would they go to protect him or AARC?

Their are many who would lie or break the law for him. Scarier though is the Parents. And there are some very wealthy, influential parents. CEOs, judges, prosecuters. It will be interesting to see how the Calgary media covers this - they have been giving fluffy, favorable coverage for years.