This wrist hold from New Zealand seems familiar

[Oscar]

I just saw a newsletter and decided to google further about Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu Trust (It is not my keyboard. It is spelled in this way)

Video showing wrist hold: (Link)

Trust staff accused of abusing troubled teens
TV NZ,  June 22, 2011

Child, Youth and Family has removed children from a high profile programme for troubled youth following allegations staff physically abused teens.
 
But Wellington's Te Rakau Trust says it was just doing what CYF taught it to do.

The trust has helped troubled teenagers for more than 20 years. It gives the boys - many from gangs - a home and uses performing arts to turn them away from crime and violence.

But ONE News can tonight reveal that trust staff have now been accused of using violence themselves.

CYF said "the allegations involved a range of issues, including the use of inappropriate discipline and restraint practices resulting in physical abuse".

CYF has removed all three teens from the trust's care and suspended $800,000 in annual funding.

Among the staff interviewed by police was actor Jim Moriarty, who has been acclaimed for his work with troubled teens and prison inmates.

Moriarty strenuously denied any wrongdoing. He explained to police that any use of force by him was in line with a confrontation de-escalation course, funded by CYF themselves, that dealt with calming and restraining young men in the trust's care.

ONE News has been told the course taught a wrist-lock technique to restrain youths while staff reason with them.

The Trust said "any restraint used by [trust] staff was justified on the grounds of self-defence, the protection of staff members, or protecting individual boys from self-harm".

The allegations were thoroughly investigated by police over a period of six months. Police said "from the information obtained and the evidence reviewed, no charges are being laid".

But Child, Youth and Family says the number and nature of the allegations raised serious concerns, "particularly around the way incidents were being managed and restraint was used - that needed to be addressed" .

The trust has two months to respond to CYF's decision but says it will work closely with the agency to address its concerns.

[cmack]

If I understood the video correctly there were 3 youths in the programs at $800,000 per year. I assume those are NZ dollars which would convert to about $620,000 US dollars. $200,000US per kid to learn performing arts?

[Oscar]

One of our volunteers have a daughter suffering from clinical depression. She is not a troubled girl but are sent to a group home where she is supposed to be cured in some 6-18 months. She will attending a normal school with a personal mentor while she is in school. It costs 300 dollars per day (The price of the mentor is not included). It becomes around 100,000 dollars per year to deal with depression by a Danish youth.

The parents are billed 425 dollars per month as a fine while the daugther is in treatment because the Danish authorities judged that it was their fault because one of the parents had a depression some years before and depression is considered contagious (and shameful) here.

[Ursus]

The parents are billed 425 dollars per month as a fine while the daugther is in treatment because the Danish authorities judged that it was their fault because one of the parents had a depression some years before and depression is considered contagious (and shameful) here.

I am so sorry to hear of that.

Shame and humiliation can be some of the best behavior modification tools around, even more effective than physical pain in especially conscientious individuals.

I know of a case at Hyde, where an individual preferred to live with the pain and possibly permanent deformity resulting from a bone fracture, rather than risk more public humiliation and derision at the hands of the so-called "community." This person had privately brought up the injury as needing medical attention, and was subsequently mocked by a teacher for having done so.

[cindiford79]

At the facility I work at we are trained to do certain holds but we are only allowed to touch the kids if they are harming themselves, or others or seriously damaging property, like a window. I have worked there for 4 years and never put my hands on a kid. I can't believe how much they charge for those programs. Money is where all the problem comes. If the programs had to be non profit and could only charge a certain amount you wouldn't have all these places emerging that were only about profit and not actually helping kids. I can't believe that there aren't some good facilities out there that actually care about the children and treat them well.

[Ursus]

At the facility I work at we are trained to do certain holds but we are only allowed to touch the kids if they are harming themselves, or others or seriously damaging property, like a window. I have worked there for 4 years and never put my hands on a kid. I can't believe how much they charge for those programs. Money is where all the problem comes. If the programs had to be non profit and could only charge a certain amount you wouldn't have all these places emerging that were only about profit and not actually helping kids. I can't believe that there aren't some good facilities out there that actually care about the children and treat them well.

Non-profit programs can be just as abusive. E.g., the fiasco currently going on at One Way Farm. And let us not forget what happened to Marvin Lee Anderson.

Moreover, just 'cuz the program is labeled "non-profit" ... doesn't necessarily mean that the admins running it aren't making a bundle off the enterprise themselves.

Curiously, you don't seem to advertise or promote non-profit programs on the website noted in your sig. A website, I might add, which looks very much like a recruitment hub of sorts aimed at unsuspecting and desperate parents, directing them to an assortment of very much FOR-PROFIT programs, edcons, transport agencies, etc., along with a ubiquitous banner for former Daytop attendee James Lehman's "Total Transformation" program featured on every page. Mmm. And I see that Lehman is also a regular "blog" contributor...

[Ursus]

Here's the homepage of this program's website:

-------------- • -------------- • --------------

Welcome To Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu

Nga mihi nui kia koutou and welcome to Te Rakau Hua O Te Wao Tapu Trust, located at 129 Adelaide Road, Newtown, Wellington, New Zealand.

Te Rakau is the longest surviving Maori Community Theatre and Theatre in Education company in Aotearoa (New Zealand). A registered Charitable Trust (1989). Te Rakau utilises the unique form of 'Theatre Marae' to work in marginalised and mainstream communities.

Te Rakau also works as a Social Service Provider under contract to Child, Youth and Family (CYF), a New Zealand government agency, to deliver a residential therapeutic recovery programme for at risk Rangatahi (youth).

Theatre Marae is a Theatre of Change, Bicultural Theatre, Political Theatre, and Theatre in Education, delivered in a framework which is inherently Maori.

Te Rakau believes that all people have a right to life that has a balance between the dimensions of Wairua (spiritual), Tinana (physical), Hinengaro (emotional) and Whanau (family).

Participants are taught to think safely and responsibly as they journey on their path to personal wellness. Through processes that include performing arts, Kapa Haka (Cultural Performance), education, life/work skills, and behavioural therapies, participants are assisted in their transition back to family and community.

Participants are encouraged and supported to explore creativity, their Purotu (magic within). Later, they present their productions to the widest possible audiences that include prisons, schools, Marae (meeting place), country halls, remote communities, arts festivals and mainstream theatres.


© Te Rakau - Hua O Te Wao Tapu Trust

[cindiford79]

Yes it is true I have mostly commercial programs on my site as of now but I am constantly expanding the resources available. Before finding this forum I really hadn't considered how horrible the programs could be because I assumed all have oversight like they do here in Oregon. In Oregon the staff is who get abused at most of these facilities. Of course I have found that even here in Oregon there was a bad wilderness program. So for the most part this forum is opening my eyes a bit. I do however still believe the truth is somewhere in the middle as with most things and not all facilities are horrible and not all kids who get sent away are innocent angels. I have dealt with some pretty horrible humans in children's bodies. Ones that have molested their siblings and stuck objects inside their rectums and ones that have burnt down their house, hurt animals and done all sorts of really awful and horrid things. I do believe that you can be a fabulous parent and have a really awful kid. I also believe that most of the problems faced by parents with their rebellious teens is the parents fault for being a uninformed or uncaring parent.

I will be adding more content on my site as I want it to both hold the good and bad of what is available to parents. I want to have the horror stories and the success stories. I will never take any money from any facility to advertise on my site. Yes I do have some affiliate links from the Total Transformation but I do need to have a way to make up for the tons of hours I spend on the site. By not taking money from any of the resources listed on my site I want it to be a unbiased resource. It is in its infancy so right now it is nothing more than a listing of agencies. I have big plans for it though.

[Ursus]

Yes it is true I have mostly commercial programs on my site as of now but I am constantly expanding the resources available. Before finding this forum I really hadn't considered how horrible the programs could be because I assumed all have oversight like they do here in Oregon. In Oregon the staff is who get abused at most of these facilities. Of course I have found that even here in Oregon there was a bad wilderness program. So for the most part this forum is opening my eyes a bit. I do however still believe the truth is somewhere in the middle as with most things and not all facilities are horrible and not all kids who get sent away are innocent angels. I have dealt with some pretty horrible humans in children's bodies. Ones that have molested their siblings and stuck objects inside their rectums and ones that have burnt down their house, hurt animals and done all sorts of really awful and horrid things. I do believe that you can be a fabulous parent and have a really awful kid. I also believe that most of the problems faced by parents with their rebellious teens is the parents fault for being a uninformed or uncaring parent.

I will be adding more content on my site as I want it to both hold the good and bad of what is available to parents. I want to have the horror stories and the success stories. I will never take any money from any facility to advertise on my site. Yes I do have some affiliate links from the Total Transformation but I do need to have a way to make up for the tons of hours I spend on the site. By not taking money from any of the resources listed on my site I want it to be a unbiased resource. It is in its infancy so right now it is nothing more than a listing of agencies. I have big plans for it though.

Wow. Are you SO desperate to build up your "parent/teen coaching" enterprise ... that you will shill programs for free, just to make it look like you have some expertise in the binnis? Geez.

By the way, this so-called infant website of yours is HARDLY "nothing more than a listing of agencies." You have quite a number of full fledged "articles" on programs which have allegations of abuse already hanging on their entrails, some of which even go back for a number of years. Oddly enough, however, despite your claims of "want[ing this website] to be a unbiased resource," nary a whisper of these allegations graces your hyperbolic prose expounding on the virtues and assured behavioral improvement which will take place in these teenage hellholes.

Oh wait... You just admitted, "Of course I have found that even here in Oregon there was a bad wilderness program." Really? Just the one? How long have you lived in Oregon? I guess ya musta missed all the hoopla about the coerced lapdancing going on at Mount Bachelor Academy. And all the drownings at Crater Lake School. Not to mention the deaths at Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy.

So... where are the promised "horror stories?" Curiously, there are none!  :eek:

[cindiford79]

So... where are the promised "horror stories?" Curiously, there are none!  

Well I have never experienced these horrors first hand so I would not have them to write unless someone tells me about them. Hence the reason I found this site and have been reading this forum. The articles about the facilities are information provided on their sites not investigations I have personally done on their merit. The hopes for the site is that once I get traffic people who have these horror stories will come post them on the site themselves. I don't want to look like I have a ulterior motive by posting a whole bunch of stories I don't have the facts about. I will post news stories if I find them. I am only one person and the site is just being built. It is far from being complete.

[Oscar]

We will create a Fornits Wiki entry on every of the program feutured on this webpage. If there are horror stories we will find them. Until then we will settle by describing how the programs are structured. Midwest Center for Youth and Families is the first of these programs which we have created a datasheet of.