Fornits

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An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

If anyone finds out the identity of the boy and his family, please let me know and let them know I may be a significant resource for them as the investigation is handled by Utah officials.

I will post more about this but the short story is this:

Aspen Ed. owns Youth Care. CRC Health merged with Aspen Ed. (backed by Bain (mormon) private equity) . So CRC owns Youth Care. By extremely odd coincidence I had had a 20 year acquaintance as a therapist consulting with a psychiatrist on various cases. I admired him very much ~ particularly his intellectual honesty and integrity. He closed his private practice a few years ago (in San Francisco) as a child and adolescent psychiatrist, like so many other doctors who couldn't afford private practice anymore. He said he was going to work for managed care and try to make change in medical standards "from the inside".  Lo and behold, he turns out to be the Medical Director at CRC Health.

He is senior management now with a big salary and stock options. I couldn't have imagined that he was anything other than the person I knew but I also know that people can be influenced and pressured and end up on the wrong side.  This appears to be what happened to Thomas Brady. I had called him this past October as the merger was being finalized and filled him in on all the gory details, particularly about Youth Care/PR because I started out in this murkey world trying to get my son's girlfriend  out of there.

I gave him documents which proved medical negligence among a long list of other sh**.   I told him that for each document I gave him I have more to support my claims.  He dodged, sent me back all the documents I gave him face to face and implied that he would deal with this but on his own terms. I called him last week before I knew of the death and told him that I cannot see anything that makes me believe that he hasn't been corrupted and that he's dodging me.  I have proof that the umbrella company had been specifically informed of gross abuse and negligence and they did not act on it.

I would encourage anyone involved in Aspen program issues to contact CRC Health in Cupertino, California. I would also contact Aspen Execs. I would say that calls and emails to executive management of both would be most useful.

Please contact by private post or at [email protected] and the ceo  of crc: bkarlin@crchealh
www.crchealth.com

www.youthcare.com
www.aspeneducation.com

and not that I presume this will be of use:

http://www.hsdcfs.utah.gov/newsletter.htm (/Dept. of Human Services in Utah)

and of course there's good old Ken Stettler - I have some interesting email exchanges with him and one of the asst. attorney generals which are pretty damning. I'll be back with phone numbers.

I missed this at the time This was from 2004.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/print/1,1442, ... 19,00.html

Teen facility targets suicide prevention

State ordered steps be taken after hanging

By Amy Joi Bryson
Deseret Morning News


'SYRACUSE ? A residential treatment center for troubled teens is being required by state licensing officials to take "corrective action" after a 16-year-old Pennsylvania boy hanged himself earlier this month.

The youth, who had been at Island View Academy for only a month, apparently hanged himself from a shower support with a belt. The shower was in a bathroom shared by other residents.

Ken Stettler, the state's human services director over licensing, said Island View officials plan to meet with him next week to submit a corrective plan of action in light of the teenager's death.

While the boy had a history of suicide attempts, Stettler said nothing in the weeks the youth was at the facility indicated there was significant trouble.

"They had done their own assessment, developed a treatment plan around that and were instructed to watch him closely," Stettler said. "He had been there a month without any kind of suicide gestures or overtones, and there was no reason for them to believe that at that point it was still an issue."

Still, Stettler's office wants directors of the 110-bed facility to submit a list of steps they have taken or plan to take to minimize the potential for future incidents.

"There might be some things the program can do to prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future," he said. "We gave them recommendations, and they will present that back to us."

Stettler said Island View officials have conducted a walk-through of the facility to remove possible risks, such as fixtures that could be used in suicide attempts.

Island View, which has been operating in Davis County for more than a decade, has experienced no troubles in the past, Stettler said.

"Their record has been exemplary."

Syracuse police detective Mark Sessions said the boy was found hanged in the bathroom July 2 after he excused himself from a movie, which was being shown before dinner.

In the hallway outside his room, Sessions said, the boy encountered a couple of other teenage residents and joked with them before entering his room.

Staff believed he was in his room at his desk, but the youth entered the bathroom from the private entrance in his room. When staff found him, they unsuccessfully tried to revive him.

State licensing officials also are in the process of revoking the license of a Manti outpatient treatment center that was performing services without properly credentialed staff."[/b]

From the Houston Chronicle 11/7/06
The Dr. Phil Show put Kimberlee in their Aspen Achievement Academy for Wilderness Therapy, which apparently didn't work."

Dr. Phil tried to help
Ramsey and her mother appeared on a Dr. Phil show about runaways. It aired Oct. 16.

According to the search agency, "The Dr. Phil Show put Kimberlee in their Aspen Achievement Academy for Wilderness Therapy, which apparently didn't work."

A news release from the Aspen Education Group's Web site talks about Ramsey's appearance on the nationally syndicated talk show.

"As much as you're seen as the rebellious teen who's angry and bucking the system, and bucking controls, the truth is, you're really in a lot of pain," Dr. Phil McGraw said to Ramsey, according to the release.

Pair ran away before
Gibson said Ramsey and Vanegas had run away together in the past. She did not know whether there was any criminal connection, and the Galveston County sheriff's deputy in charge of the case couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday.

"We're based in Dickinson, so it's on our home turf," Gibson said.

"If they have a killer on the loose (volunteers) just want to make sure their kids are accounted for."

"Obviously Kimberlee is easy prey. She's a runaway. She doesn't have any money. She doesn't have a car. She doesn't have a cell phone," Gibson said.

Ramsey was wearing blue jeans, a blue football jersey and black house shoes.

Ramsey has brown hair with blonde highlights. She has green eyes, is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs about 155 pounds. Anyone with information about the case is urged to call Texas EquuSearch at 281-309-9500.

Vanegas will be buried today.

Check Aspen's site for the Dr. Phil story.

I am urgently trying to collect relatively recent accounts of kids/former employees who've been through any Aspen Ed. program! If you can write a detailed account of your experience it will be included in a significant piece of research that I am doing specifically on Aspen and will publish as soon as I have enough personal accounts from the last two years. It can be anonymous, but I'd need to confirm who you were or you can sign it. Your stories are the only way to penetrate the secrecy. I know it's tough to write these things and I wouldn't want to push any kid sore after release who isn't ready to rehash but if you are capable, please, please write! Send me a private message with an email and I will email back with more information.[ This Message was edited by: hurleygurley on 2005-09-16 20:45 ]

If you or anyone you know is a relative of an abducted teen FROM CALIFORNIA, there is someone in Dianne Feinstein's office taking information and sending letters to the state and or program that the kid is suspected to be held. They will only say that they are "doing research" and "checking into numerous complaints." I don't know if it will help in the short run but a bunch of fax's all around the same time would be good. You can call or email but it's my experience that emails get lost and phone calls sometimes can be cut off abruptly.

The contact in Feinstein's office is Evan Pena - fax # 202-228-3944, Feinstein's office no. in DC is 202-224-3121.

Pena has been sent, and presumably read, Alison Pinto's Exploitation in the name of Specialty Programs  FYI, If you haven't read it and distributed to everyone you know who is ignorant about the horror I suggest you do now! It's an academic paper, very well written and covers all of the major concerns.

If you can think of other places to look for people who are worried about their California relatives I'd appreciate it.

Thanks.

I've found one significant one so far. Does anyone know of anyone else who are/were members of or former employees of Synanon/Straights/Seed/Narconon and are currently employed with an Aspen facility?

http://www.byubroadcasting.org/familiesunderfire/

i'd highly recommend listening to a lecture on teens given at a BYU conference. Scroll down and you'll find it. no comment necessary.

The linkb below is to nospank's announcement about the bill and there's a pdf link on that page for the full text. I will be pouring over it to make suggestions. I hope you all do too. If this could pass it actually has teeth but besides the significant obstacles presented by our present administration's attitude which adds up to "leave every child behind", Aspen and I'm sure others will try to find loopholes by redefining their programs as educational and somehow (they're good at this) making themselves exempt. They are already in the process of doing this. You'll see subtle ongoing changes in the language they use to describe the programs.

FYI, I saved pages with relevant wording on Aspen pages just in case the page changes. I have used cached (older versions of web pages) a lot in my research and they can come in very handy!! The best way to do this is to Google Aspen or a facilities page and click on "cached" at the end of the google listing of the page. Then save the page as .html NOT text. If it won't save, take a screenshot!

 I want to make sure this bill covers these kinds of issues. I will post my comments, in order to get feedback.

http://www.nospank.net/g-miller.htm [ This Message was edited by: hurleygurley on 2005-05-09 13:16 ]