Perri,
I agree, these programs are NOT about abuse. They are about MONEY. In my experience with these people, there are a great many of people who work at these facilities who truly do care about the children and want to help them. The "owners" of these facilities? Money, Money Money. All under the guise of helping kids. That's where I have a problem. I have never been to CCM, so I have to believe you when you say it was nice. I can, however, tell you that CSA is not a nice place. Yes, the people there by and large genuinely want to help the kids. But it is a rundown facility, very dusty and dirty, the "school" equipment and "teachers", are a joke, the library looks like a corner of someone's garage sale of leftover books no one would take for free, The food is unappetizing, fattening and definately subpar. There are no real sports, they don't even have anything to play with even if they could. They basically get zero education, the credits they receive rarely transfer to any "decent" schools, there is no real time to learn about others, or from others, because you stay on silent basically 90% of the day. The kids can't even eat lunch without having to take notes from motivational tapes played throughout their meals, then test on them afterwards. They watch the same old "kids that have done wrong" tapes day after day until they block them out and just sit there in a stupor. The group sessions are conducted by someone who has no educational background in psycology or psychiatry, and then this wise person dispenses their opinions and gives solutions. The only way to see a real psycologist is to pony up $75 an hour for your kid to see the doctor who comes in sporadically. My daughter saw the one there once and didn't get to see her again for 3 weeks. The rules change daily without warning, in an effort to continuosly keep you of guard. My daughter got sick, but wasn't allowed to see the nurse even after asking for 3 weeks, and I was not told she had any problems. Luckily, she followed the rules, so she wasn't sent to the observation placement or worksheets, but she said the entire day was spent with someone yelling negative things to the girls 24/7. I fail to see how anyone can grow and thrive under these conditions. How would they voluntarily decide to change their lives? They don't They are made to change. They work under the same principles of the military. Break 'um down, build'um back in the image you want. Unfortunately, the biggest problem is how they manipulate the parents. They do everything in their power to get the parents to the seminars asap in order to convince them that to ignore their children's complaints about the program, food, rules, etc. That way, the program is always right, your child couldn't possibly be being sexually, physically or verbally abused, it is just them manipulating the parents. If a child does attempt to blow the whistle on the problems they see, then they lose what little privaleges they may have. It is a catch-22 situation for the kids, damned if they do, damned if they don't. And there they are, separated from all their loved ones, trapped, with no rights. If your child didn't need therapy before the program, you can bet they need it now.