Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > CALO - Change Academy at Lake of the Ozarks

Questions for Calo Students

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psy:
Continued from this thread.


--- Quote from: "CALO Student #17" ---I'm usually someone who sees things for how they are, without distorting events or ideas in a bias manner.
--- End quote ---

I'm skeptical such a person exists, self included, which is why it's necessary to limit power.


--- Quote ---If anybody wants to know more about this place, feel free to ask me. I might be the only person who has ever been neutral about CALO (lol), so I don't have any reason to lie or hide anything.
--- End quote ---

What was group like?  Was it harsh?  Confrontational.

Anonymous:
Medical Tests

What medical tests did CALO require you to undergo prior to enrollment?
Who conducted the tests?

Physical Restraints

Did restraint reports specify proactive measures taken by staff to prevent restraints, what time restraints started, what time restraints finished, staff involved and injuries from restraints?
Were students allowed to process restraints via. telephone with their parents?

Che Gookin:
CALo student #17

What happened after you attempted to communicate with those girls using sign language?

What is a double duece?

CALO Student #17:
Sorry for not getting back to you guys sooner. College has been keeping me busy, lol.

Anyways, I personally didn't have to go through any medical tests or evaluations. I'm sure that they evaluate the student first though. Most of the students that went to CALO had come from some other previous program at one point or another. I went to Second Nature, a wilderness program and I was transfered to CALO as soon as I came out of the woods. I'm sure that my therapist in SN forwarded my information to CALO. Besides that, the only tests that I went through were physicals every now and then that were given by a doctor from the nearby hospital (i forgot the name, sorry). I wasn't even prescribed meds for my entire stay there.

And as far as restraints go, staff typically tried to use the PCS method as a last resort. A hold typically put the day's flow out of whack, so for the sake of keeping the mood as positive as possible (which wasn't very high anyways) staff tried to talk the student down first. I'm not gonna lie, there's been a couple staff members who enjoyed holds, but those staff members didn't last more than 4 months. In fact, my entire stay in CALO, there was an average of 1 or 2 staff members being replaced every month.* Along with the disruption and having to move all the students away from the hold, staff also avoided holds because each one involved a good deal of paperwork. The student is always examined for injuries some time after the hold (unsually right after, but I've seen them take as much as 6 hours to get around to it). Any injuries are recorded, sometimes even if there is an injury that happened before the hold. The therapist and the parents are always alerted about the hold, but usually not right away unless the therapist is on campus at the time.

Students get at least one therapy session per week and almost always involve a phone call with the parents. This is usually to process whatever the student is working on in their program at the time. We also had another "free-time" phone call on Sundays. We used to be able to call to our parents durring this time, but once we started filling up with more students, we had to arrange times where the parents called in. We got 30 minute phone calls (which i always extended to 40-60 minutes  :D). If the parent did not call in durring their scheduled time, then the student would be skipped. At the end of the phone call schedule, there is time set aside for the staff to try calling the parents who didn't call in. If they don't pick up, then the student typically doesn't talk to their parents until the therapy session later in the week. Durring the free-time phone calls, however, the students are not really being monitored, until it has been prescribed by the therapist. The phone room is pretty big, and theres only one staff member in there to watch us, sothey don't get the hance to actually listen in on all the conversations. We can say whatever we want.

Lol, Che, you've certainly done your homework. We typically get regroup for communicating with the opposite sex. We also got the green shirt, but that usually isn't a big deal. The therapist is usually informed of the comunication and the student gets to talk about whatever they were trying to do. This is usually where the students lie their asses off, btw, lol. Anyways, the "double deuces" thing was between another student and me. It was our sign of "I was thinking about you today". This "sign language" was set up when we were both on home visits. She called me every now and then, and before we went back to CALO, I thought it would be something cute to do. I'm not sure if anybosy else has used that, lol. I'm kinda suprised that you've heard about that, lol.


*This obviously caused problems with students because most of them were sent to CALO with attatchment issues. It always hurt when you get really close to a staff member, then they suddenly just disappear. Sometimes, the administrators actually didn't allow the staff members to return and say goodbyes. There were times when students would openly refuse to open up to staff members due to fear of being hurt when the staff member leaves.

Any other questions?

CALO Student #17:
Oh, i forgot to answer the other part of the "restraints" question.

All staff members on CALO property are PCS certified, so they can put students in a hold. I've even seen our cook put a kid in a hold once. Therapists and administrators aren't an exceptions either.

And as far as how long they last, it "lasts as long as it needs to". This pretty much means that they will keep the kid on the ground (not necessarily putting pressure) until they are calm enough to listen. Holds aren't like "kid disrupts - staff put into hold - kid calms down - staff gets off - day goes on". After the hold, the student has to talk to the staff members who put him him/her into a hold. It doesn't have to immediately after, but no longer than a day after the hold. Because of this, staff tend to keep the student down until they feel that the student is calm enough to talk to and resolve whatever issues are going on.

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