Author Topic: Aspen - failure again  (Read 4056 times)

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Offline Oscar

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Aspen - failure again
« on: October 29, 2009, 10:32:05 AM »
Just one more example of how residential treatment fails if you don't work very hard on the home environment:

Britain's fattest teen starts to pile back on the weight she lost (The Daily Telegraph, october 28, 2009)

Returning home she had to take care of her parents who is unable to cope for themselves. Of course she could not remain on a healthy path. Not even the non-troubled but hardworking obediant teenagers can benefit from residential treatment if the origin of the problem isn't removed while they are away.

Aspen shouldn't have promised good results without demanding that the parents should move to a nursing home before this girl was sent back. Like with 90% of the teenagers who is recommended to residential treatment, a treatment of the family unit can produce way better results.

This girl could have benefitted from:

1) having a dietician coming into the home giving advice on meals to both her and the parents
2) been given a free membership to a health club with personal trainer
3) having the county to provide the parents with a health care aid for some hours while the daughter was away in the health club.

Guess what: It would be cheaper than the Wellspring Academies.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Troll Control

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2009, 10:42:46 AM »
Yes, this is the problem with the behavior modification principles on which Aspen programs are built.  In fact, it's the same problem as almost every b-mod plan: the learning is situation specific.  In other words, the subjects fail to generalize the behaviors they learned inside the lab to outside the lab, or, in this case, at Aspen programs to the real world.  

This is why Aspen is a failure across the board.  As soon as the kids leave, they go right back to what they were doing before.  Even according to limited research done on ASR by a college student, most behaviors that caused the placement were worse upon leaving the program.  Kids did more drugs after program.  Kids drank more after program.  Kids got into more trouble after program.  The whole model is a failure, so the results aren't surprising to me at all.

On top of that, according to Dave Marcus' book about ASR, 25% of the kids followed ended up DEAD and the remaining 75% RELAPSED immediately.  This book, touted as support for ASR, actually shows a 100% FAILURE RATE.
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Offline Whooter

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2009, 07:17:44 PM »
What book are you talking about?  Who is this guy/
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Oscar

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2009, 01:29:21 AM »
From our datasheet about ASR:

What It Takes To Pull Me Through" (ISBN-10: 0618145451) by David L. Marcus.

I have seen the book because Covergaard bought it. It is a rather good portrait of how ASR was back in the days where they used Psychodrama as treatment (Internally known as Livestep).

The author has his theory about the cause to the traffic toward programs. He blames a the double income society and the parents priority regarding pursuing own goals rather than being a factor in the lives of their children.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Ursus

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2009, 02:59:53 AM »
Quote from: "Oscar"
From our datasheet about ASR:

What It Takes To Pull Me Through" (ISBN-10: 0618145451) by David L. Marcus.

I have seen the book because Covergaard bought it. It is a rather good portrait of how ASR was back in the days where they used Psychodrama as treatment (Internally known as Livestep).

The author has his theory about the cause to the traffic toward programs. He blames a the double income society and the parents priority regarding pursuing own goals rather than being a factor in the lives of their children.
If I recall correctly, Psychodrama started to be used in psych wards in the 1960s, perhaps even earlier given the time table of Jacob Moreno's development of his Theory of Interpersonal Relations. Apparently, it didn't always have "props" or role-playing back then, despite the "drama" descriptive. Probably depended on the facilitator.  :D

Without the props et al, it sounds more like "good old" TC with a fancier title to me...
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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Offline Whooter

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2009, 07:10:30 AM »
Quote from: "Guest"
What book are you talking about?  Who is this guy/

Here it is:

DaveMarcus

David L. Marcus has been a foreign correspondent and education reporter
for U.S. News & World Report, the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and Dallas
Morning News, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on
violence against women around the world. Marcus also was a Nieman Fellow at
Harvard. After a twenty-four year career in journalism, he spent a year as
a high school teacher at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.




About the Book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer untangles the mysteries of the
teenage mind as he witnesses troubled kids transformed by fourteen
months at a school that offers therapy for adolescents in
crisis.

To find answers, Marcus gained unfettered access to students, staff,
and parents at the Academy at Swift River in the hills of western
Massachusetts.
The kids at Swift River had already ventured down a
number of perilous paths all parents fear their own children might
take – drug use, violence, theft, internet addictions, eating disorders,
promiscuity. Known for combining intensive academics, a wilderness
program and group therapy, the school helps troubled teenagers emotional
health.

He focuses on four remarkable kids who run the demographic gamut:

--a Southern girl whose privileges cannot save her from sinking into
drug abuse and unsafe sex;
--the self-destructive son of teachers grappling with his anger about
being adopted;
--a black kid from a tough New York neighborhood who is silenced by
consuming depression;
--a once high-achieving Florida girl "broken" by the death of her mother.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Anonymous

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #6 on: October 30, 2009, 08:39:19 AM »
What Whooter fails to mention is that of the 4 kids followed thru ASR one killed himself immediately after the program and the other three relapsed into drug abuse with one girl being involved in a fatal alcohol-related motor vehicle accident.

ASR = 100% failure rate + 25% death rate.

Funny how this part keeps getting left out, huh?

Also funny is that Marcus does paid 'workshops' for Aspen, too.  Not exactly honest reportage from TheWho.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Whooter

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #7 on: October 30, 2009, 10:47:30 AM »
Quote from: "Guest"
Quote from: "Guest"
What book are you talking about?  Who is this guy/

Here it is:

DaveMarcus

David L. Marcus has been a foreign correspondent and education reporter
for U.S. News & World Report, the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and Dallas
Morning News, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on
violence against women around the world. Marcus also was a Nieman Fellow at
Harvard. After a twenty-four year career in journalism, he spent a year as
a high school teacher at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.




About the Book
A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer untangles the mysteries of the
teenage mind as he witnesses troubled kids transformed by fourteen
months at a school that offers therapy for adolescents in
crisis.

To find answers, Marcus gained unfettered access to students, staff,
and parents at the Academy at Swift River in the hills of western
Massachusetts.
The kids at Swift River had already ventured down a
number of perilous paths all parents fear their own children might
take – drug use, violence, theft, internet addictions, eating disorders,
promiscuity. Known for combining intensive academics, a wilderness
program and group therapy, the school helps troubled teenagers emotional
health.

He focuses on four remarkable kids who run the demographic gamut:

--a Southern girl whose privileges cannot save her from sinking into
drug abuse and unsafe sex;
--the self-destructive son of teachers grappling with his anger about
being adopted;
--a black kid from a tough New York neighborhood who is silenced by
consuming depression;
--a once high-achieving Florida girl "broken" by the death of her mother.

This guy also did a book about battered women didnt he.  I thought I read that somewhere.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Troll Control

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #8 on: October 30, 2009, 11:27:00 AM »
Quote from: "Guest"
What Whooter fails to mention is that of the 4 kids followed thru ASR one killed himself immediately after the program and the other three relapsed into drug abuse with one girl being involved in a fatal alcohol-related motor vehicle accident.

ASR = 100% failure rate + 25% death rate.

Funny how this part keeps getting left out, huh?

Also funny is that Marcus does paid 'workshops' for Aspen, too.  Not exactly honest reportage from TheWho.
.  

When you get past the spin from Aspen, these statistics are stunning.  1 of 4 dead.  3 of remaining 3 relapsed.  1 of remaining 3 kills an innocent while operating a motor vehicle drunk.

ASPEN turns kids into STATISTICS.
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Offline Ursus

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Re: Aspen - failure again
« Reply #9 on: October 30, 2009, 11:28:56 AM »
Quote from: "Guest"
This guy also did a book about battered women didnt he.  I thought I read that somewhere.
Perhaps you are referring to this part, quoted from your own post:

    David L. Marcus has been a foreign correspondent and education reporter for U.S. News & World Report, the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and Dallas Morning News, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on violence against women around the world.[/list]
    « Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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    Offline Ursus

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    Re: Aspen - failure again
    « Reply #10 on: October 30, 2009, 11:35:20 AM »
    I love this little bit of snazzy wordage from the marketing spiel for What It Takes to Pull Me Through:

      "A Pulitzer Prize-winning writer untangles the mysteries of the teenage mind as he witnesses troubled kids transformed by fourteen months at a school that offers therapy for adolescents in crisis."[/list]

      Sounds like the author is exploring alien territory, indeed!  :twofinger:
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      Offline Troll Control

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      Re: Aspen - failure again
      « Reply #11 on: October 30, 2009, 11:39:49 AM »
      "Transformed" by Aspen is true.  One was transformed into a corpse and three more into hardcore drug addicts and one of those three into a drunken manslaughterer.  Now that's a transformation.

      Remember also that John D. Reuben of STICC's kid was also transformed into a corpse.  There seem to be a lot of dead kids coming out of Aspen's programs, especially ASR.
      « Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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      Offline Whooter

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      Re: Aspen - failure again
      « Reply #12 on: October 30, 2009, 12:19:13 PM »
      Quote from: "Ursus"
      Quote from: "Guest"
      This guy also did a book about battered women didnt he.  I thought I read that somewhere.
      Perhaps you are referring to this part, quoted from your own post:

        David L. Marcus has been a foreign correspondent and education reporter for U.S. News & World Report, the Boston Globe, Miami Herald, and Dallas Morning News, where he shared a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles on violence against women around the world.[/list]

        Yes!  I knew he worked against violence against women.
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        Offline Anonymous

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        Re: Aspen - failure again
        « Reply #13 on: October 30, 2009, 12:32:41 PM »
        Quote from: "Guest"
        Yes!  I knew he worked against violence against women.

        Yeah, too bad he promotes violence against children.
        « Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

        Offline Ursus

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        Re: Aspen - failure again
        « Reply #14 on: October 30, 2009, 12:52:38 PM »
        Quote from: "oingo boingo"
        Quote from: "Guest"
        Yes!  I knew he worked against violence against women.
        Yeah, too bad he promotes violence against children.
        The common element of violence struck me as well. I would have chalked it up to a gravitation towards exploitative subject matter which always tends to generate high press copy, but perhaps Marcus does have a deep dark secret buried back in his youthful years...
        « Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
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