Peninsula Village info from HEAL:
"Peninsula Village in Tennessee is confirmedly an abusive behavior modification facility. They are part of the Peninsula Behavioral Health family of services and we have firsthand accounts of abuse at Peninsula facilities. Please click here for a report on the abuse at Peninsula. They describe a 6-8 week orientation period or initial ?level or phase? of brutal peer pressure used to effect change in your child. Taken from their website, linked to the opening title of this description as of 2/17/04, reads: Treatment begins in the locked Admissions Unit. This initial period of treatment typically lasts six to eight weeks and is an extremely intense therapeutic experience. The Admissions Unit is unlike most other locked unit programs and is specially designed to address resistance and introduce patients to our group-oriented treatment approach, which uses peer pressure to create positive change.? Welcome to trauma-based behavior modification 101. Don?t send your child to this program. If you were abused at Peninsula Village or had your rights violated in any way, please contact us and we will post your personal testimonial here as a warning to others."
The report HEAL links to:
"SURVIVOR?S REPORT
I entered Peninsula Behavioral Health at the age of 14. I entered the adolescents unit, which is apparently an offshoot of a non-compulsory adult drug-rehabilitation facility, sometime in April ?03 and was dismissed a week later. While I did not witness any blatant torture, it is by no means a treatment program, just a way to make money, as my mom was later billed hundreds of dollars owed to Peninsula. It is incarceration under the guise of rehabilitation. The MD who convinced my parents of consenting my admittance to Peninsula told what I know now to be blatant lies or at least factual inaccuracies to gain their consent. I was made to give blood and urine, the blood was drawn by a nurse who admitted her own incompetence and thus required several separate attempts to get the needle in the right area. I was threatened that my stay there would be prolonged if I didn?t give blood, although I was not admitted there under the suspicion of drug abuse in the first place, but anorexia (and despite me allegedly having such a horrible disease, they did not attempt to treat me for any kind of eating disorder whatsoever). I was denied access to my parents on the first level, be it telephone or otherwise. My parents were told when they were allowed to visit to be wary of my words for I would try to manipulate them to get out. I was preached religion by an apparent MD who gave me a physical. I was made to remove all but my underwear during admittance. I was not allowed any reading materials, which meant besides the periodical "group sessions" and "inspirational movies", I was left to stare at the wall in depressive monotony for hours at a time. I was not allowed to leave my desk except to use the restroom and it was required that you gain permission from a nurse to be able to sit or lay on your bed, which were searched, along with our folders, daily, and we were made to re-make the beds after they were messed up by counselors. Despite all this the facility operated under a very clean and professional environment, excellent "manipulation" if I may say so myself. Make no mistake, I can't see how this could be beneficial to anyone no matter what their problem, except to instill fear of a second stay, which could be helpful to some parents nonetheless but not any individual clients. I overheard counselors attempting to convince a boy into entering Peninsula Village, which is also on your list. Everything I have said is true to the best of my knowledge and experience.
Anthony (send messages for Anthony to HEAL at
www.isaccorp.com). You may view the list of warning signs by visiting
http://www.heal-online.org/warn.htm. We remind you that the warning signs are red flags and if a program you have submitted your child to has any of the warning signs, we highly recommend you do not send your child there. Below is Anthony?s list of matching Peninsula program actions to the list of warning signs.
I will list the violations according to your list:
1. Peninsula Behavioral Health operates with some sort of "levels" system, where over the course of a week you
gain levels which gains you certain privileges. During the first few days I was not allowed to call or speak to my parents, during the first meeting with my parents it was monitored with a "counselor" in the room, the second time days later, It was not monitored. However I was asked if I had a message for my parents which they could deliver, I said to deliver the message that this was "Not a hospital, but a prison", I was laughed at and told that that message would not be delivered.
2. I believe so that my parents had to sign something of the sort, yes.
5. The foreign (Indian) doctor who each of the "patients" had one to two meetings with (the headmaster it seems), was very unhappy about me telling my parents that for most of the day I stared at the wall although this was true. He said I was trying to manipulate them and all the "counselors" warned my parents before our first meeting about "manipulation", that I would say anything to try to get out and to take what I say with caution.
6. Level 3 "patients" only are allowed telephone privileges, I never reached that level.
10. It resembled a low security prison.
12. They were not allowed to see me during this process I believe.
13. We were made to exercise lightly, I don't know if it was compulsory though.
14. Yes, no books were allowed at all.
17. I didn?t ask to see any credentials but the Indian doctor who was not entirely fluent in English seemed a bit suspicious to me, nothing concrete here though.
22. Because I was allegedly anorexic and they were suspicious I would vomit my food, I was asked at times to leave the bathroom door cracked while I pissed.
24. I was asked to strip, refused, and was then asked to remove all but my underwear.
25. No reading materials were allowed although I didn?t ask for any religious materials, but I was preached Christianity by a MD, or apparent MD. There was nothing that pointed to this MD's preaching as anything other than vigilante, although their official site makes references to "God."
28. I was not examined by or had any meaningful discussion with the person that prescribed me the medication, this person did not outwardly look to be an MD.
33. On the first level you are denied a 30-minute, fenced outside time.
36. There was a strict policy against looking or speaking to clients of the opposite sex, which would occasionally pass through the hall in lines. I was mistakenly accused of looking, (yes, looking), at a girl when I was merely talking to another client who happened to be in the field of vision of the door, which apparently some girls had just passed through. I was spotted by a counselor and made to write an entry in the rulebook over 50 times. I digressed this with a different counselor who seemed to believe me but insisted I write it anyway.
If you were abused or had your rights violated by Peninsula Behavioral Health, please e-mail us your experience and we will post it here as a warning to other."
Source:
http://www.heal-online.org/childtortureusa.htm#tn42