Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers
Facebook groups show that kids are really great full?
Oscar:
Some years back a survivor of Turnabout Ranch wrote his story. It has been syndicated to the blog Tales from the black school.
Some survivors praise the program. If you scan the net of the boot camp in Mexico where children were tied in dog cages all day you will find survivors who praise that program too. But the fact is that the children at Turn-about ranch is placed in Stone circles by day and given defunct sleeping bags at night making them freezing until they give some kind of confession, the therapist can show you as a parent as a prize showing that the program works. If the police were allowed to do the same, they could solve all crimes with random people they would pick up on the streets. It would result in a massive amount of people being convicted for something they didn't do.
I believe that all kind of inpatient treatment produce such confessions which are basically lies made so the participants in the program can survive and get out.
Second I believe that the doctors are too fast to judge too many as bipolar. It cannot be right that such a huge percentage of the population is bipolar. You don't that number in any other country. It must be marketing from the medical industry. As for the binge drinking, she is properly only doing it because it is illegal and forbidden. It is a rather natural thing for teenagers to do. Being in the same situation I would offer her to study at a boarding school in a culture where she can get her diploma and avoid being arrested for something which is legal in other places. Here in Denmark teenagers can buy their own alcohol once they are 16. We don't see binge drinking because we basically have greedy teenagers who want to earn money so they can finance their fun, so they balance alcohol, parties, studies and work. There is something which is called International Baccalaureate. Try researching that.
E.M.B:
I see what you are saying but I don't agree with you. My daughter IS bipolar, she went through over 7 doctors who agreed with the diagnosis. If she isn't bipolar than she has another issue, hallucinating when manic IS an issue. Also she cannot be having treatment at home or in a place where she is not somewhat watched, she is bulimic and is refusing to stop she also has a past with cutting/burning and I think she has gone back to that. I don't think stone circles are that bad, if you go to their Facebook page many of the kids pointed out that was what they didn't exactly like it but it made them think a lot about what has been their life and where it is headed.
I agree that bipolar is severely over diagnosed but I think that is bipolar ll because I notice kids and adults who are just simply depressed being diagnosed, but with bipolar l there is a lot more to see is evidence with Manic states and such. Please keep in mind I am also discussing New Haven and would like input there. Thanks.
Oscar:
There is not a lot of information out there on New Haven. They have a "No Contact" policy among the graduates and if they call to ask about other classmates, the staff would lie and tell that they are dead. Well, Facebook very much destroyed that strategy. From the thread Updates for alumni?
--- Quote ---Anne Stein
I strongly believe New Haven has a responsibility to its alumni. Additionally, as alumni we have a right to not be put through an emotional blender from a "no contact after discharge" policy which is obviously long past enforcement. (Side note: The emotional blender refers to being told that many of the girls from 2001 had died.. when, in fact, they hadn't.. although the jury is still out on a few who we all have yet to hear from/can't find because we couldn't get their information before leaving)
I'm not sure how many of you girls still check this group or how many actually care, but I'm proposing that New Haven offer some sort of update for alumni.
I've just sent Dustin the following email in hopes of putting something together:
Hi Dustin,
I'm not sure if you remember me, but I spent about 5 months at New Haven's West House from August 2001 to January 2002. I realize the institution's policy on "no contact after discharge" is running into some snags with the popularity of social networking and I'd like to voice a concern.
Bryanne is claiming she called to say hello to Katie and Joe about a year after she left and was told by another staff member, Aubrey, that Nancy Snyder had committed suicide.
This is pretty disturbing for several reasons, the least of which is the fact that Nancy is alive and, apparently, well with a husband and a new daughter.
I was told several years ago that Ritu had overdosed and I'd like to know 1) if Ritu's story is true 2) how these rumors are started and 3) how they can be contained.
Perhaps it would be in everyone's best interest for New Haven to post an update on their patients. Even something as simple as a list of names with "alive; doing well to our knowledge". Many of us would like to be able to contact old friends with whom we shared a unique experience, but whose personal details we were prevented from collecting. After so many years, I don't remember several of the girl's last names; searching for them is nearly impossible and relying on the testimony of other girls is clearly not the best idea.
Thank you,
Anne Stein
--- End quote ---
The girls seem to like the restricted environment once they have adjusted to it, but they all complain about how tough life is on the outside and it is the policy of the facility that they cannot use each other to do that.
We are at the core of the problem with any residential program. Aftercare! People need time to adjust to real life. As a parent you need help or you need to adjust your home to the person who emerge from the program. You can find the best program in the world, but it would be warehousing and not a cure unless the staff is there to guide both her and you when she comes home. By then programs like New Haven lost interest in both you and your daughter.
If you look at some of the other threads you will find that the girls are really disturbed by the fact that the close relation they had with the staff are gone. Not even 5 minutes the staff will give the girls on the phone. Some of the girls state that they are starting to wondering if the relationship was fake and just something the staff did to earn their money. If the girls start to doubt the basis of the program that the staff acted in the interest of them would it not result in the girls starting to doubt any benificial therapy too?
I would put my money on a more clinical approach to stablize your daughter and then set up some support in the home and the school. Can the local social services not be helpful in that regard?
As for the cutting, it looks awful and it leaves awful scars but every 10 girl cuts themselves at some point as an alternative to outpatient therapy which is not working. Find another therapist or speak with her about sharing this too with her therapist if she is basically OK with this person.
E.M.B:
Well this is odd.. The Facebook group has a lot of staff in the group who talk to the kids on there? I heard it has changed a lot in the past years? Maybe they improved it. Also they have Alumni weekend!
Pile of Dead Kids:
I don't know who's trolling who anymore, but in the off-chance that this is, in fact, a real parent, I recommend that you read the rest of Fornits and find a lot of poorly-veiled staff members talking about help and growth and positive change.. and a whole lot of very real victims talking about recurring nightmares, isolation, and crazy shit. The ones who can still talk, anyway. For the ones that can't, see my sig.
You don't want to get involved in this.
"But those weren't New Haven"... what, exactly, makes you think New Haven is any different? Wishful thinking?
And remember, a lot of these Facebook groups are *run* by staff members. They're not about to let reality get a foothold in there.
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