www.strugglingteens.com/news/APAReport81206.pdf Obviously this study only marks improved behavior/self assesment of self in an environment which coerces change. It's kind of funny that this is even being mentioned as legitimite data since it's like asking kids over at the Judge Rotenberg Center, who have been shocked into submission, to report on their state- knowing that if they are feeling feeling x, say agressive, knowing that this is a 'bad' thing, that it could get them sent back, that it's not allowed... well, it's easier to deny than to admit and then try to pretend or try and deal with the conflict of what's acceptable vs not.
Another possibility is that there is no sense of being in touch with the self, but rather only what the program has told you you should feel, think, do, etc. It's no suprise that we've all heard of fellow alumni return to old stuff, or become more self-destructive w/in 6 months to a year...
It also takes time for the shock to dissipate, for the fear to subside, for the trauma to sink in and for honest, awareness and present assesment to take place. I have NO doubt a good percentage of youth will entirely contradict this study's preliminary results in the follow up.
I (and I'm 100% positive I'm not the only one) would have easily- given the naturalization of the program mantra- reported improvements in just about every area of my life after leaving the facility I attended, for a number of reasons. This would have been/and was so ( I told everyone how wonderful the program was for a while after I left): Fear of getting sent back, fear of disappointing my family, fear of diminishing my own value by diminishing the program's value (ie, my 'accomplishments' there- after all, spending a year perfecting the art of something, even if it's regurgitation, is awfully painful to admit in the end it was of no real help), and I think the biggest fear of all would be having to admit helplessness. If the program didn't have the answers then I was back at square one, or square negative one... That was the worst thing possible.... I would then have no answers. Yes, denial was the only choice for me for some time...
Much like the respondents, who didn't gain some insight- if we all really think about it...there is some value in the trauma of seperation, the fear of not living with your family for years, the shock of being completely and utterly alone- some self refelction and even insight into family life can only be expected, but that alone is not a program and in that trauma, abandonment, of seperation, etc - do the end jutify the means?
I find that this study to be irresponsible- well, at least NATSAP's response is premature and irresponsible. Dr. Brehan just seems naive. The study itself, for whatever reason, does not examine the nuances of individual programs - how can we examine a program w/o identifying and looking into the practices they call 'therapeutic'?
Um... perhaps the results would be more acurate?
The difference b/w a facility that does not force peers to act like staff vs one that does, or variations in a facility that does not impose/ insist constant, daily confrontation with the intensity that many of us find dehuminizing and humiliating vs methods used at regulated RTC's?
Or what about the rock picking for days vs facilities that don't turn youth into chain gangs who don't have that?
Not to mention, how many kids have said they've noted improvements (time spent at facilitiy irrelevant), yet still report symptoms of PTSD? I suppose that upon discharge this is too soon to asses, but I wonder if that will be a quesiton posed in the follow up interview?
In anycase, to ignore the role of coercion and how easily one can become complicit in their dis-empowerment or mistreatment is absolutely obscene (niave on the dr's part), yet this - like so many other deminsions, are mute points.
For NATSAP to completely jump the gun and insist private residential tx is evidence-based is silly, there's not enough information provided. To ignore completly what we've all reported, however, is incredibly irresponsible & I am absolutely appalled and sickened.