does residential really help and which one is good

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Whooter]

lol, its funny how it threatens so many peoples' world when any success stories are talked about here.  There is so much energy and desperation put into keeping the idea alive that all kids suffer in programs.

Staying up all night with a bunch of kids your own age isnt abusive, sorry.  I dont think DSS would even respond unless they were serving alcohol.  We had a guy here awhile ago claiming he was abused and it turned out that he was punished by removing the salt and pepper from the table.  What if they were all sent to their rooms early would you claim it was abusive because they were being isolated from their peers?   Do you see the spin?

Why cant people just tell a credible balanced story of their stay there and be honest about it like:

"The food was horrible and some of the staff were really mean and yelled alot but I made a lot of good friends and one staff in particular helped me thru a rough time.  The 2 staff members that were always yelling ended up leaving.  Some of my friends made out well but others felt the place was abusive..."

thats a lot more credible than:
"I was kidnapped and sent to a gulag where I was placed in isolation, under restraint with no food.  I was abused and all the staff were the same abusive people.  Everyone tried to escape.  All programs are the same and no one has ever been helped by one ever."



...

[Anne Bonney]

The title of the thread is too broad.  Does "residential" really help?  Depends on if the person actually needs any "help" in the first place and depends on what type of "residential treatment" they're receiving.  Residential can mean medical hospitalization, which is needed in some cases.  It can also mean a traditional boarding school, which can be beneficial in some cases.  But it can also mean these wilderness camps and the like that use LGATs and/or the positive peer pressure tactic of breaking someone down and building them back up, which isn't good for anyone.

[Anne Bonney]

Staying up all night with a bunch of kids your own age isnt abusive, sorry.

But keeping them up night after night after night is.

"I was kidnapped and sent to a gulag where I was placed in isolation, under restraint with no food.  I was abused and all the staff were the same abusive people.  Everyone tried to escape.

Yep....that did indeed happen to many of us.  Glad you can finally accept it.

 

All programs are the same and no one has ever been helped by one ever."

The details are important.  All programs that utilize confrontation "therapy" are pretty much the same and very often more damage is done than simply doing nothing.

[Ursus]

lol, its funny how it threatens so many peoples' world when any success stories are talked about here.  There is so much energy and desperation put into keeping the idea alive that all kids suffer in programs.

Staying up all night with a bunch of kids your own age isnt abusive, sorry.  I dont think DSS would even respond unless they were serving alcohol.  We had a guy here awhile ago claiming he was abused and it turned out that he was punished by removing the salt and pepper from the table.  What if they were all sent to their rooms early would you claim it was abusive because they were being isolated from their peers?   Do you see the spin?

The Department of Social Services and Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services did investigate the Academy at Swift River, no alcohol was needed to elicit their response.

ASR was cited for several infractions, which included monitoring students' telephone calls and mail as well as "using behavior management techniques which subject students to verbal abuse, ridicule and humiliation, denial of sufficient sleep, and repetitive exercise as a response to an infraction of a rule."

From "Tough love may be a little too tough" (by Stephanie Kraft; June 24, 2006; Valley Advocate):

...At other times, Kent saw students compelled to do degrading make-work as punishment. One time, he said, he saw a girl forced to spend an entire day scrubbing a staircase with a toothbrush. He was also alarmed by the few bits of information he heard about the so-called Life Step sessions, forms of group therapy in which several students would be taken to one of the buildings for day-and-a-half to three-day stays.

"I was instructed repeatedly on paper to prepare very minimal meals for these overnights," Kent said. "I would put up carrot sticks, celery sticks, crackers, cheese, hummus, a few turkey sandwiches, and this plate would be sufficient for two mealtimes. Then I would send a very light breakfast. The staff would have bagels and cream cheese, the kids could only have fruit and cereal. I worried about the fact that the food for the staff was different, and I felt that these were very light meals."

Kent worried about whether the food was being rationed on a punish-and-reward basis during the sessions. The question was one of many the Advocate was unable to discuss with ASR officials, who declined to be interviewed about the program.

Kent had other concerns about the Life Step sessions. He did not witness them, but he heard that the students were kept up most of the night for "therapeutic" group conversations that were a more intense version of the communication sessions he had overheard.

One of the students Kent remembers best was a boy with a talent for drawing, whom he got to know through the mask-making class. One day Kent came to work and the boy was gone. Other staff members said he had been taken from the school in the middle of the previous night and sent west for a wilderness trip. Three weeks later, Kent said, the boy was back, and looking depressed. Another staff member told Kent that when she greeted the student with "Hi, it's nice to have you back," he burst into tears.

Other things worried Kent too. He noticed that the students were not allowed to make telephone calls, even calls to their parents, without a staff member listening, and that their incoming and outgoing mail was read. After he learned that a boy who had broken his collarbone had been forced to move heavy cans and jars and wipe down shelves in the kitchen as punishment for a trifling infraction just a week after being injured, Kent became so worried that he decided to contact the state Department of Social Services about the school's practices. DSS passed the information on to the state Office of Child Care Services, which sent an investigator, Eric Lieberman, to the academy.

Academy administrators told Lieberman it was true that students were denied sleep for 19 or 20 hours during the first Life Step session, called "The Truth." Staff and students might stay up all night, then break for a nap between 5 and 7 a.m., then continue the session until 2 the next afternoon, the administrators said. One administrator also acknowledged using profanity toward the students during communications sessions, and added, "Some days I have said things to students that I wish I did not say."

The Office of Child Care Services' investigators found that the school had not been remiss in getting medical treatment for the student with the broken collarbone, but it did substantiate most of Kent's other concerns. It cited the school for "using behavior management techniques which subject students to verbal abuse, ridicule and humiliation, denial of sufficient sleep, and repetitive exercise as a response to an infraction of a rule."

OCCS also cited the school for monitoring students' telephone calls and mail. The agency said that the right to privacy in communications, even for juveniles, can be restricted only by court order -- for example, if a therapist believes that the teen's communication should be monitored, perhaps to support a young person through a crisis in relations with his or her family -- and then only temporarily...[/list]

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Whooter]

Staying up all night with a bunch of kids your own age isnt abusive, sorry.

But keeping them up night after night after night is.

But you see this is how you get yourself in trouble with your credibility.  The post never said the kids were kept up night after night after night.  They were kept up all night,  allowed to sleep a few hours in the morning (5 till 7?) and then continued until about 2 in the afternoon.

You embellish the facts!

See this is why we question your account of your time in straight.  You cant even remember the details of a recent post.  How can we believe the details of what you say happened to you 30 years ago.



...

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Troll Control]

Ask Whooter about Brett Carey who used to work with his daughter at Academy of Swift River.  Brett worked at CEDU Rocky Mountain Academy when I went there from 1990 -1993.  These RMA people are like cancer.

Rudy Bentz was the headmaster at ASR at the time and also a CEDU/HLA retread.  Ask Whooter about Rudy.  He loves the guy.  I happen to know Rudy is an abusive animal and drunken vehicular manslaughterer and would never allow him anywhere near my child.  But Whooter thinks he's great.

Whooter shouldn't be worried about Anne's credibility either.  He should be worried that the story he just told about his daughter is pure fiction and 100% contradicted by his many earlier statements.  He's an unabashed liar and just here to shill for programs.

[Ursus]

Staying up all night with a bunch of kids your own age isnt abusive, sorry.

But keeping them up night after night after night is.

But you see this is how you get yourself in trouble with your credibility.  The post never said the kids were kept up night after night after night.  They were kept up all night,  allowed to sleep a few hours in the morning (5 till 7?) and then continued until about 2 in the afternoon.

You embellish the facts!

See this is why we question your account of your time in straight.  You cant even remember the details of a recent post.  How can we believe the details of what you say happened to you 30 years ago.

From the article quoted in my previous post, and originally published less than four years ago, not 30:

"He was also alarmed by the few bits of information he heard about the so-called Life Step sessions, forms of group therapy in which several students would be taken to one of the buildings for day-and-a-half to three-day stays."[/list]

I do believe "night after night after night" is an apt description for "three-day stays." How is this an embellishment of the facts?

[Joel]

Edited: Wednesday, October 06, 2010

[Anne Bonney]

Staying up all night with a bunch of kids your own age isnt abusive, sorry.

But keeping them up night after night after night is.

But you see this is how you get yourself in trouble with your credibility.  The post never said the kids were kept up night after night after night.  They were kept up all night,  allowed to sleep a few hours in the morning (5 till 7?) and then continued until about 2 in the afternoon.

You embellish the facts!

See this is why we question your account of your time in straight.  You cant even remember the details of a recent post.  How can we believe the details of what you say happened to you 30 years ago.

From the article quoted in my previous post, and originally published less than four years ago, not 30:

"He was also alarmed by the few bits of information he heard about the so-called Life Step sessions, forms of group therapy in which several students would be taken to one of the buildings for day-and-a-half to three-day stays."[/list]

I do believe "night after night after night" is an apt description for "three-day stays." How is this an embellishment of the facts?

Ursus, don't you know by now that in Who's alternate universe that up is down?  Black is white and left is right?

[Whooter]

Of course it says that, Ursus.  Kids stay in programs day after day after day, night after night after night.  Search the web for any reference you choose.  It was a nice back peddle, though, and a good try to cover for Anne.

But the topic we were talking about and the post we were referencing was this one.

Link

Academy administrators told Lieberman it was true that students were denied sleep for 19 or 20 hours during the first Life Step session, called "The Truth." Staff and students might stay up all night, then break for a nap between 5 and 7 a.m., then continue the session until 2 the next afternoon, the administrators said. One administrator also acknowledged using profanity toward the students during communications sessions, and added, "Some days I have said things to students that I wish I did not say."

Just to be clear this isn’t night , after, night, after night, no matter how you read it or spin it.  Its one overnight and they get to sleep from 5 till 7 then finished up around 2 in the afternoon.

Its a clear example of how things get embellished here.   If I didnt call you on this the story would grow into a week with no sleep, food or water lol



...

[maruska]

Of course it says that, Ursus.  Kids stay in programs day after day after day, night after night after night.  Search the web for any reference you choose.  It was a nice back peddle, though, and a good try to cover for Anne.

But the topic we were talking about and the post we were referencing was this one.

Link

Academy administrators told Lieberman it was true that students were denied sleep for 19 or 20 hours during the first Life Step session, called "The Truth." Staff and students might stay up all night, then break for a nap between 5 and 7 a.m., then continue the session until 2 the next afternoon, the administrators said. One administrator also acknowledged using profanity toward the students during communications sessions, and added, "Some days I have said things to students that I wish I did not say."

Just to be clear this isn’t night , after, night, after night, no matter how you read it or spin it.  Its one overnight and they get to sleep from 5 till 7 then finished up around 2 in the afternoon.

Its a clear example of how things get embellished here.   If I didnt call you on this the story would grow into a week with no sleep, food or water lol



...

OMG...19 or 20 hours without sleep??  


THAT is abuse. End of story..

I do not think the police can use such a tactic here with criminals...and we are speaking about children!

[Samara]

It was 1-7 days at regular intervals. The experientials consist of extreme emotional distress. Attack "therapy", EST and Lifespring type therapies... It was pretty traumatic, but you were so happy to be out you literally danced and then gushed about all the Kool Aid you drank.