What relationship is Penny Walker to Ross? They look similar in age, and is that her "real" name?
Wasn't Penny Walker responsible for the day to day operations of Hebron's KIDS HELPING KIDS?
Umm, yeeessss!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OfCXLdOAwk
I'll never forget when I emailed her about her program being awfully similar to MIller Newton's Straight... and she completely denied any connections.
Here's a chapter from Finn Green's Senior Thesis for the 'Gaines Seminar in the Humanities' (May 1, 2002; University of Kentucky), titled "
ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE USE AND ABUSE." The 104-page pdf download itself is titled '
Stages of Substance Abuse'.
Mr. Green uses his daughter's "struggle with drug and alcohol abuse" and subsequent "rehabilitation" at KIDS HELPING KIDS (Milford, Ohio) as the premise and backbone of his thesis. Mears Green also subsequently became a "Senior Staff Counselor" at KHK, and cooperated/assisted in her father's thesis preparation.
The section on KHK history, which makes a number of references to both Straight, Inc. and Dr. George Ross, was allegedly provided by none other than Penny Walker herself.
Summary, Chapter Three: KIDS HELPING KIDS (pp40-54)
History and Personnel
Philosophy, Assessment, Admissions and Host Homes
Program Description, Open, Group, and Aftercare Meetings
-------------- • -------------- • --------------
CHAPTER THREE
KIDS HELPING KIDS…like their motto, 'If your kid is lost, then one of our kids will find them.' That's what they say and that's what happens. That's Kids Helping Kids. It's not like diplomas helping kids, or some clinical woman. I mean they play a big part, like Michelle played a big part in my program and in my treatment but if she would've been the only person I would have dealt with I wouldn't have been sober still…I wouldn't have made it.[/list]
KHK both changes and saves the lives of children. I disavow any claim or effort to fully describe the KHK program model. A claim of this nature would be both false and futile for the only way to provide a complete depiction of the KHK program is by actually experiencing it in person on an ongoing basis. I only sketch an outline that describes the program as it relates to its aspects or the participation by the KHK staff, kids, and parents.
History and PersonnelKids Helping Kids (KHK), located in Milford, Ohio, is a unique long-term, day treatment, multi-modality, adolescent drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Several factors attribute to KHK's uniqueness. Utmost, however, it's not called Kids Helping Kids for nothing. New adolescent clients, or "newcomers," are immediately placed under the guidance of program peers who have progressed to a point of earning the responsibility of helping others. KHK also employs their own program graduates, or "seventh-steppers," as Staff Counselors whose responsibility is to help current KHK clients through rehabilitation. KHK administers a hybrid treatment that synthesizes the family-based and multi-systemic, behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and twelve step intervention modalities. Parents and families are involved in many aspects of treatment, including the provision of nighttime housing for the adolescent clients. In this section, I describe these above notable factors in detail and provide information on KHK's history (KHK history provided by Executive Director Penny Walker), philosophy, personnel, and quantified data.
The late 1970's marked an alarming increase of substance use and abuse by American adolescents. In 1979, a study revealed that there were no beds in Cincinnati, Ohio rehabilitation facilities or hospitals for adolescents suffering from alcohol and chemical dependency. One evening, people packed a Northern Kentucky High School gymnasium to listen to George Ross talk about STRAIGHT, an adolescent drug and alcohol rehabilitation program based in Florida. Within months, more than sixty families from the Cincinnati area had admitted their children into the STRAIGHT program.
STRAIGHT required that family members attend meetings in Florida on a monthly basis, and if not their child would be dismissed from the program. This requirement prompted a proposal from the Cincinnati parents to STRAIGHT: open a STRAIGHT facility in Ohio. Although STRAIGHT had plans on going national, they initially declined the request. Some parents wanted to continue lobbying STRAIGHT while others wanted to start a new rehabilitation program. The two schools of thought split the Cincinnati contingent. In 1981, both STRAIGHT and KHK opened facilities in the Cincinnati area, STRAIGHT in Milford, Ohio and KHK in Northern Kentucky.
The two organizations experienced some nature of competition in the early years. In 1982, First Lady Nancy Reagan attended a STRAIGHT fund-raising event in Ohio that helped STRAIGHT net two million dollars in solicitations that year. STRAIGHT bought a land-tract and constructed a state of the art facility, specifically designed for adolescent rehab. The KHK Board of Directors hired STRAIGHT's George Ross to oversee KHK's operation. At times, STRAIGHT would be treating nearly two hundred adolescent clients while KHK might treat a dozen or so. However, as many things do, things changed. Ross remained with KHK for only a few years when Penny Walker replaced him as Executive Director. By 1986, STRAIGHT found it necessary to close the doors on their facilities, including the one in Milford, Ohio. The STRAIGHT facility in Milford, Ohio remained unoccupied and in foreclosure for seven years until KHK purchased it in 1993. The acquisition negotiations with the court system began in July and ended in September 1993. KHK held their first meeting in the renovated facility in November 1993 and continue to operate there today.
As Executive Director, Penny Walker guides a complete staff of relevant personnel resources. The staff currently includes but is not limited to Program and Clinical Director Michele Hoehn, M.A., C.C.D.C. III-E, a fully accredited Clinical Staff and Coordinator, a Medical Director, a Nurse Practitioner, a Staff Psychiatrist, a Consulting Psychologist, an Educational Coordinator, and a fully operative Executive Staff. KHK's Board of Directors currently consists of twenty members and is supported by an Advisory Board and an Honorary Board that includes four Congressmen and a Senator. I am forever indebted to and thankful for these people.
Philosophy, Assessment, Admissions and Host HomesKHK is for kids between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one. KHK's philosophy supports a belief that
chemical dependency is a disease with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. We further believe that, with adolescents, chemical abuse is characterized by developmental arrest or deterioration which may be viewed in stages with characteristic physical, psychological, and social symptoms.
As a result of chemical abuse, the adolescent may experience inadequacies of personality, impairment of cognitive functioning, diminished motivation, interpersonal and social conflicts, emotional blocking and regression, and causal disregard for behavior consequences (
www.kidshelpingkids.com).[/list]
The KHK philosophy identifies areas of concern that are addressed by basic treatment modalities including family based, multi-systemic, behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions. KHK helps adolescents to learn how to apply a set of principles that will better enable them to manage their behavioral and emotional responses to life's situations. A KHK goal is to return the adolescent client "to a healthy productive lifestyle (
www.kidshelpingkids.com). How does KHK get the opportunity to give these kids a chance to live a healthy productive lifestyle?
I doubt that many kids, if any, wake up, or come to, one morning and say, "I want to go to a long-term drug rehab." For example, in our situation, that's not what Mears did. She only asked for help ("only" implies no shortcoming on her part, whatsoever). Furthermore, she told me later that if she had known that "KHK was the kind of help you were going to get me, I wouldn't have asked." The pattern of Mears' sad and destructive behavior had been increasing in both regularity and severity for some time. Making the decision to send Mears to KHK did not come easy. My first visit to KHK occurred eighteen months prior to the time when her mother Cere and I took Mears there in February 1999.
In the fall of 1997, KHK Program Director Scott Stacey and Admissions Director Pat Burfitt personally interviewed me to discuss the nature of the problem. They did briefly describe KHK's program; however, they focused on the problem, not on treatment. I began to both see and accept certain things while I verbalized my perception of the problem to them. I accepted then that Mears, who was not quite fourteen, had definitely been using alcohol and drugs. I also accepted that my previous behavior had been an example for Mears, not a good or responsible example either. For several years, Mears had watched me either trying to force solutions to problems or to altogether avoid life situations by drinking alcohol. I accepted that I needed help being a responsible parent. Scott Stacey and Pat Burfitt helped me to ascertain the nature of the problem and to realize that potentially I could be both a part of the problem and the solution. Mears, her mother and I were floating in ice-laden water. As I left, Scott said, "I'll see you later." He could not have been more correct, thankfully.
The next time I contacted KHK, I spoke to Pat Burfitt on the telephone Monday, February 22nd, 1999, and we made arrangements for Mears' admission to KHK. Pat remembered my previous visit to KHK and said we could bring Mears there anytime. Cere and I would take her to KHK the next morning, unbeknownst to Mears. Although I knew that we were being loving, responsible parents, I experienced a great deal of emotional pain and mental confusion with this decision and admissions process. When we arrived at KHK two kids took Mears off to our right behind a set of doors and Pat led Cere and me into a nearby room. Pat explained that
Mears is on the other side of this wall with four kids from the program and she, by now, has probably figured out a few things. The other kids will have told her that they have been here for ten months, seven months, fourteen months and eleven months and are here because of drug and alcohol abuse. Mears will be given the choice of telling you good-bye with the condition of being cordial, or not telling you good-bye.[/list]
We were only beginning to experience what Pat continued to explain—the nature and extent of the program. From Pat, I heard well-explained information about the KHK Open Meetings on Friday nights; however, I did not understand much of what Pat verbalized until experiencing the numerous situations that she depicted. For example, I understood what Pat told us earlier about it being Mears' choice to tell us good-bye only when Christopher, one of the kids on the other side of the wall, came into the room and said, "Mears wants to say good-bye." I had never been glad to say good-bye to Mears; in an odd way, a sense of relief engulfed me. She remained seated when her mother and I walked into the room. Cere told her "I love you Sweet-Pea" and Mears responded, "I know that." The three of us were crying. Glancing at me, Mears said, "Toodles" and I leaned over and held her face in my hands and kissed the top of her head. After a moment, Mears slightly recoiled. I let her go and left the room. By leaving Mears there, her mother and I had become parents of a KHK first phase newcomer client.
KHK recognizes two types of families, in-town or out-of-town families. Families who live within a fifty-mile radius of KHK are considered as in-town and families who live outside of that radius are out-of-town families—we were an out-of town family. That meant that Mears would be staying overnight with "oldcomer," in-town families or "Host Homes." An oldcomer kid and their family have advanced to at least the second phase.
Newcomer kids are supervised by oldcomers during their stay at night. The hosting family makes house rules and it is the responsibility of the oldcomers to assure these rules are followed. These host families provide a critical part of each client's treatment, by providing a positive role model and adult perspective as each kid works through their issues (
www.kidshelpingkids.com).[/list]
In addition to being role models, the host families provide breakfast and dinner as well as daily transportation to and from KHK for numerous kids. These families help to change and save the lives of children. During the admissions process, KHK clearly defines the differing roles and responsibilities of in-town and out-of-town families.
Program Description, Open, Group and Aftercare MeetingsThere are six phases that KHK adolescent clients and family members participate in, given that the client completes the program. Kids must satisfy specific requirements of each phase prior to advancing to a subsequent phase. KHK also requires that the adolescent client spend a minimum number of days in each phase.
First phase newcomer clients have few, if any privileges. Some privileges that are immediately removed are speaking without being spoken to, independently moving about, speaking to family members, wearing certain clothes, going home, going to school, talking on the telephone, listening to music, and watching television. KHK also teaches that being responsible is a privilege; for example, first-phase kids earn the privilege of helping to clean the facility. These privileges are bestowed or restored based on the individual's behavior, compliance to KHK rules, and consequent advancement through the phases. First phase kids spend ten and one half-hours per day focused on and participating in their treatment program.
Kids continually both introspectively examine and discuss their history of alcohol and substance use with clinicians, peer counselors and oldcomers prior to earning privileges like talk-time. "Talk-time," a first-phase privilege, is a fifteen-minute monitored conversation with their parents or guardians that takes place after open meetings on Friday nights. Kids generally experience two or three talk-times, at a minimum, prior to advancing to the second phase. Second phase clients have earned the privilege of going home on the weekends with their family. Third phase clients return to school, taking classes at schools in Milford, and may work part-time for businesses in Milford. Fourth phase clients may talk on the phone, listen to music, watch television, and are gradually re-integrated into their home communities. Fifth phase clients have all privileges restored, even driving and visiting friends without being in the presence of parents or guardians. If a kid fails to comply with certain KHK guidelines they may be either not allowed to advance through the phases, or may in fact be "set-back" to first phase. Parents, guardians, and family members of KHK adolescent clients advance or regress through the phases as their kid does.
Parents, guardians, and family members attend two separate meetings held on Friday nights. Group meetings last ninety minutes and are held prior to the Open Meetings that may last several hours. Monday night meetings are offered for siblings.
KHK holds Open Meeting in a room the size of a junior high school gymnasium. Seating arrangements ceremonially identify four distinct groups. Kids are divided into girl and boy groups and face the parents who are divided by being parents of either a boy or girl client. Parents and family members of girl clients sit directly opposite of the boy clients and family members of boy clients sit directly opposite of the girl clients. In other words, parents and family members sit in a diagonal quadrant to their kid. The primary purpose for this aspect of the seating arrangement is to reduce attempted eye contact and potential manipulation of the family member by their newcomer child. Newcomer kids sit in the front rows of their respective sections and parents of newcomers sit in the back rows of their respective sections. As the kid advances through the phases they move back in the rows, eventually to stand in the back row. The parents, on the other hand, move to the front of their respective section as their child advances through the phases, eventually ending up on the front row as a parent of a fifth phase kid or a seventh-stepper. The seating method produces an effective nuance.
I have both a clear memory of and notes about our first KHK Open Meeting on February 26, 1999. The kids were in place as the parents filed into the room and found their seats. That night there were less than twenty girl and close to thirty boy clients. KHK personnel introduced themselves, then monitored and led the meeting. Next each newcomer kid stood and introduced him or herself. When someone handed Mears the microphone she stood and said,
I'm Mears Green and I'm sixteen years old. I've been here for three days. My drug list is alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and mushrooms. I've used for three years. I've learned the first five steps, and my goal is to learn them all. A time from my past is Christmas and I went to my Grandmother's high on cocaine and had been drinking…just so I could be with my family. I was in the bathroom that night swallowing down pills with alcohol. I'm really ashamed of that.[/list]
Mears sat and wept. I wept also, knowing we had done the right thing. I lived this couplet numerous times. After all of the newcomer kids and one boy and one girl oldcomer finished their introductions, the monitor asked if there were any phase changes. Kids who had phase changes shouted them out, one by one, "Third Phase," "Third Phase," "Fifth Phase" and so on. At that time, I didn't realize what those announcements meant.
KHK literature defines three purposes of Open Meeting as
[li]To provide a therapeutic environment, where parents can identify the many ways they have been affected by their child's chemical dependency, AND the feelings they each have about this.[/li]
[li]To productively confront your child with the seriousness of his/her disease, by relating episodes from his/her drug-using past which vividly demonstrate an affect of family and others.[/li]
[li]To provide a time and place to celebrate the progress you and your child are making toward recovery. (KHK: Your Role as a Parent of KHK Handout).[/li][/list]
KHK stresses that parents should verbally express their feelings and avoid lecturing their child at all. After the kids announced their phase changes, the parents and family members spoke beginning that night, as every Friday, with the parents of first phase kids. Mears stood when Cere and I stood. Mears wept. We all wept. Cere recalled to Mears the "night I had to help you into the car from the party at Fasig-Tipton when we were with _____ and _____. I love you." And then, I told Mears
I'm so glad you are here. I believe that God will heal you. I don't remember a specific incident from the past. But, I am so sorry for having hurt you and for neglecting my fatherly responsibilities to you. I love you.[/list]
Mears said, "I love you Mom, I love you Dad." We all sat down and the kids chorused, "We love you Mears." We continued to weep. We didn't spend anytime alone that night with Mears. At the end of the meeting, Mears and the other newcomers were led out of the room by oldcomers who held onto the belt-loop of the newcomer. As I stated earlier, you can only understand the program model when you attend KHK on an ongoing and regular basis.
The purpose of the other group meetings is to focus on the family member's part in, or responsibility to, both the problem and the solution. Group meetings are designed to cover six separate areas and are identified by the titles of basics, group, coming home, fourth phase, fifth phase, and seventh-steppers or program aftercare.
Basics and group meetings introduce and educate family members on the fundamentals of alcohol and substance use or abuse, and treatment—specifically KHK's program model in terms of parent involvement. Parents are exposed to a set of principles and skills that may help them to better understand the basis of their thoughts and feelings so that they may more effectively communicate with their children. KHK makes many demands of parents because they believe that parents are critical to their child's success at KHK. KHK exposes parents to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. AA's Twelve Steps are essential to the KHK program model. Parents learn how to write a "moral inventory" (MI), based on the suggestions found within and throughout AA's Twelve Steps. Parents only write a couple of these inventories, while the kids write inventories on a daily basis for their program's duration. These MIs include the recognition of three good points of the individual's character and a statement of five well-defined and achievable personal goals. Some people who are unfamiliar with the Twelve Steps find their introduction to the Steps similar to that of learning a new language. A vital factor of KHK's success rests on both the kids and their parents learning and using this Twelve-Step language.
Parents are instructed during "Coming Home" group meetings on how to prepare their homes for their child's return. Kids return to their homes for the weekends upon their advancement to the second phase. KHK provides and reviews an in-depth instruction text on "Home Preparation" and a set of rules for parents to both refer to and follow. The instructions and rules include suggestions for sleeping arrangements, what to do with your child's belongings, security requirements, fire safety, how and who to communicate with at KHK, and what to do in case your child runs away from home. In addition, the kids are familiarized with these instructions and are held accountable for their adherence and also for reporting any violation of the rules. Parents' failure to comply with these guidelines can result in the kids being setback to lower phases.
As important, if not more so, during "Coming Home" meetings parents are versed on fundamental personal skills like how to establish a new relationship, how to commit to communicating, and learning the arts of both listening and talking to your child and other family members. For example, KHK identifies "Stumbling Blocks to Listening," and claims that,
listening to your child can do nothing but good! Unfortunately, so many of your own thoughts can get in the way of really hearing what your child has to say. Common and negative thoughts that can crowd your mind are 'I've heard this all before,' 'I think the child likes to hear himself/herself talk,' and 'When is this kid going to get the point?' (KHK Preparation for Coming Home Handout).[/list]
As KHK does consistently well, after identifying problem areas they then identify and provide solutions to these common problems. KHK identifies skills to "The Art of Listening" that suggest parents
[li]Focus your listening by choosing to ignore negative thinking.[/li]
[li]Focus your listening by not thinking about what you want to say next.[/li]
[li]Focus your listening by not interrupting.[/li]
[li]Focus your listening to particularly "sensitive issues" by giving your child your complete attention.[/li]
[li]Focus your listening by use of eye contact. (KHK Preparation for Coming Home)[/li][/list]
Following these and other KHK suggestions helped me to establish and restore my side of the relationship with Mears.
Kids join their parents in Fourth Phase, Fifth Phase, and Program Aftercare meetings. All group meetings are led and monitored by KHK clinicians, kids, or former program parents who share their experiences with a particular program aspect.
Fourth phase meetings focus on discussing real life situations that the families are experiencing. The meetings provide not only a format to follow but also a safe environment for the kids, who occasionally bring up difficult subjects that relate to their relationships with family members. The impetus behind this safe environment may well stem from the presence of other recovering kids. The child both relates to peers and may well have previously discussed their situation with them. For the most part, there exists a general comradely atmosphere between the kids and parents. There are, however, heated discussions as well when people deal with problematic matters they deem of great importance. When these situations arise, the KHK clinician oftentimes provides sound guidance and several options to consider as solutions to the specific difficulties. These solutions may be presented in the forms of suggestions, instructions, or by merely sharing their own experiences. KHK attempts to provide their clients and family members with skills that are effective and vital in dealing with life's situations.
Fifth phase meetings are mainly devoted to assisting the kids and parents in discussing, drafting and agreeing on contractual issues for the program aftercare phase. This agreement "formalizes various decisions about family life that have been made between the parties while at Kids Helping Kids," and is executed by the parents, the adolescent, and KHK (KHK Seventh-Step Contract). The term of the contract is for six months following the graduation of the adolescent from KHK. There is an optional renewal period of six months unless otherwise agreed to by the parties. The contract negotiations offer an opportune time for unspoken misunderstandings to arise. The contract details cover many areas including but not limited to time spent together as a family, the adolescent's responsibilities at home, curfew, advising parents of plans, school and work issues, structured leisure time, financial responsibilities, and automobile use. It also addresses arrangements for living outside of the home, support meetings or church activities, "druggie" friends and inappropriate places, and the consequences for failure to abide by contractual agreement. Not unusually, parents and kids experience great difficulties with these negotiations—we did not. We executed our contract during our last family meeting with our family counselor and clinician Michele Walton (now KHK's Program Director Michele Hoehn). We had had four or five family meetings with Michele during the eleven-month course of treatment. Graduations held during Open Meetings mark the end of the first five phases. Then the kids become Seventh-Steppers and are required to attend a six-month aftercare on a weekly basis, with monthly parental attendance required.
Aftercare proves to be the phase or period when most kids and family members experience great apathy, in turn potentially abandoning program responsibilities. Completing the first five phases requires a great deal of fortitude and commitment. The task may emotionally, physically, and mentally drain many participants. Possibly, a tendency exists to believe that by completing the first five phases that you have completed the KHK program. Aftercare proves to be when and where the rubber meets the road. Kids and family members are no longer nurtured in the security that lends itself to them while in treatment. Once again, they are truly tested by real life.
Will they choose the new way, or the old way? Kids are asked to spend ten hours a week during aftercare at the program "participating in group sessions with clients and a two-hour Saturday support group for graduates (
www.kidshelpingkids.com). Meeting this commitment instills a sense of personal accomplishment and responsibility in addition the kids remain accountable to their peers. Each kid who continues to progress through aftercare earns additional program privileges. Kids must complete aftercare in order to work as KHK counselors.