Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Aspen Education Group
How many deaths have occured at Aspen Ed programs so far?
Oscar:
--- Quote from: "Whooter" ---But, also, if you look at the Aspen facilities as a group they are doing well. Thousands of at-risk children are getting the help they need and are being turned around. so they need to keep chipping away at the problem areas and reducing the risk to zero.
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--- End quote ---
I would consider it to be a rather thankful phrase to claim that they are going well.
I can see that they have recognized that they had a problem with running facilities which were "we cure all problems here" facilities.
The boarding school in Texas was hit by a change in local government when the new sheriff not only disallowed years of practice - the scared straight tour in the local jail. He arrested the employee who managed them. Their version of the scared straight method was rather extreme, but it had been going on since year 2000. They were forced to change the program but were then hit with another problem running a substance treatment facility when you are a for-profit program. They didn't make profit, so they closed it down. They have changed the target group for Sunhawk Academy properly based on what they learned in Texas. I don't know if they are able to make a profit, time will show.
Cedars Academy closed. Aspen did properly discover what they had bought as it had a long history including problems with the license.
Over the years Academy at Swift River had more managers than most of us have underwear. Somehow the many changes in therapy approach has turned out to be what saved them from closure because they started out as a Mount Bachelor copy, but the downside is that every peer group has been a kind of testing ground.
I guess that it is a question of time before the weight division will be changed from a residential approach to a kind of consultant based activity. Independent research has shown that in order to achieve a lasting weight loss the clients have to make the changes back at home, so the mixed results we see today where the students gain all the weight they have lost once they return home will result in a reduced enrollment over time. Taking a kid away to a residential program in order to achieve weight loss does not work unless the child take over the entire cooking process back home. It can work with adults because adults make their own food. Kids eat what is served by the parents. The school they planned in the New York region has been abandoned and now they plan to open a school in Europe properly having underestimated how far we are in Europe on this area. However I can see a golden egg in their Wellspring Fit Clubs, unless the sport shops in the United States are very behind ours as almost every shop here have a running club where some of the employees run with customers one time per week after business hours.
Finally of course they have the wilderness division. Even without the deaths it should be clear for them that they lack a component. A competitor in Colorado is working with a German television station and they seem to have developed a version of a wilderness program which works way better than more traditionel wilderness program. Basically the kids are in the wilderness for 6 to 7 weeks and the parents entire 4 to 5 weeks where there are therapeutic breaks with shopping etc. The Germans did try Turn-about Ranch, but did choose to customize Monarch with European knowledge instead. If Aspen don't develop their programs they could end up loosing out to more modern programs. Tough love was a 1990's thing. Generally we now know better.
Whooter:
--- Quote from: "Oscar" ---Finally of course they have the wilderness division. Even without the deaths it should be clear for them that they lack a component. A competitor in Colorado is working with a German television station and they seem to have developed a version of a wilderness program which works way better than more traditionel wilderness program. Basically the kids are in the wilderness for 6 to 7 weeks and the parents entire 4 to 5 weeks where there are therapeutic breaks with shopping etc. The Germans did try Turn-about Ranch, but did choose to customize Monarch with European knowledge instead. If Aspen don't develop their programs they could end up loosing out to more modern programs. Tough love was a 1990's thing. Generally we now know better.
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Great info, Oscar, thanks. I am just responding to this small piece for now:
Its great to see other perspectives being considered. I believe that programs will continue to evolve and improve as they have been since the beginning. Any changes to the present models which will increase the effectiveness and success rates (of the kids) above what we are seeing here in the US will probably be implemented and tried out on at least a Beta scale. So I am sure companies like Aspen have their eyes on the way Europe is handling their at-Risk children. do you know if they have posted any success rates?
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Whooter:
--- Quote from: "Oscar" ---Over the years Academy at Swift River had more managers than most of us have underwear. Somehow the many changes in therapy approach has turned out to be what saved them from closure because they started out as a Mount Bachelor copy, but the downside is that every peer group has been a kind of testing ground.
--- End quote ---
From what I have seen and read, Swift River is a data driven program and they look hard at the results they are getting and are ever evolving and dedicated to improving the percentage of kids that do well each and every year. They have changed their entrance requirements more times than they have their underwear also!! They initially accepted kids who were violent and ended up having problems with some of their students pulling knives on each other. Now you have to have your child evaluated at a local hospital or have a psych evaluation done (third party) prior to being even considered for admittance. They don’t accept kids via escort and the child has to buy into the program (at least on some level) during the interview process. This way they have kids who are willing to work on getting straightened out.
It will be interesting when they complete a study on their current model. If they can exceed the 80% success rate that some, of their sister programs have seen, it would be a big feather in their cap. But until the economy turns around and they resolve their problems with programs like Sagewalk I dont expect any study results to be released.
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Anne Bonney:
--- Quote from: "wdtony" ---
I don't think it is appropriate to call it "a loss of a child" or write "when a child is lost" when these kids have been killed due to what appears to be criminal negligence. These kids weren't "lost" they were basically murdered. There is a loss of life whenever anyone is killed or murdered but you don't hear the news anchor say, "there was a loss of life today when police shot a man during a drug bust". They say, "a man was killed". Your language is detracting from the importance of the problem and dismissive.
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Yep. It's not like the kids are missing. They're fucking DEAD. Killed by the very people entrusted with their safety.
9403390:
viewtopic.php?f=37&t=21315
a long while ago i posted about the brief few months I worked at a brat camp called sagewalk when it was pretty new and I now read a kid died there. This is sad but it is not surprising it took so long to happen. They just didn't believe any kid when they said they were not well. This kind of place is not like outward bound, it is not like army cadets or duke of edinborough or any other normal thing.
It takes kids with issues and punishes them and bullies them and doesn't build them up. They say everyone is trained in emergency first aid and we were but what is the point of having that training if you don't practice it?? you are also trained to second guess kids when they are first sick. I saw a kid go from a little unwell to emergency level sick before they helped him. That was the end of the worst 2 months of my employed life and the day i quit. The fact that there are even forums that talk about death counts makes my blood run cold.
Parents even if your kid is running wild do something else to sort them out. Dont risk their health and safety or let adults they dont know or trust bully them.
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