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Messages - blombrowski

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1
Feed Your Head / Re: The next possible celebrity victim
« on: August 22, 2013, 10:40:16 AM »
[quoteParis’ new home bills itself as a residential treatment facilities for troubled teen girls with various problems. Surrounded by breathtaking mountain views and soaring plains, it’s a far cry from Paris’ hectic life under the microscope in Los Angeles.][/quote]

So this is the information we have based on the article:

1.  All girls program in Utah
2.  One of the more expensive programs ($14,000/month)
3.  Co-located with a program that has boys (Utah Youth Villages the parent company of Alpine Academy, has a coed program that serves publicly funded youth in Utah on campus)
4.  Uses a "houseparent" model

Add that to the fact that Alpine has experience working with the daughters of celebrities, and until now had been managing to keep things confidential.  I'm 99% sure it's Alpine.

2
Feed Your Head / Re: The next possible celebrity victim
« on: August 22, 2013, 06:26:08 AM »
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2013/ ... y-michael/

Based on the description of the school and the photos, I'm going to venture to say that she was sent to Alpine Academy.  Which gives me reason to believe that the placement process occurred just about exactly as I described it a couple of months ago.  Alpine was the first choice, Alpine had initial reservations, the family went to DRA, DRA leaked that Paris was going there, and then the family and Alpine came to some kind of arrangement so Paris could go there.

It's a sad state of affairs when the place that overprivileged, underparented, emotionally labile teenage girls from Los Angeles and San Francisco can find mutual peer support (and realize their own personal circumstances are not that unusual) is in rural Utah, but I'm going to say that this is one of the more sensible uses of a residential treatment environment I've seen and assuming she's actually discharged in the next few weeks and it doesn't go on for months and months, actually an appropriate and helpful treatment intervention.  Can't say I'm enamored with the privilege system, but that just makes it like 99% of all residential (including treatment foster care) placements.

3
Feed Your Head / Re: The next possible celebrity victim
« on: July 08, 2013, 08:11:05 AM »
Just want to say I don't think DRA was the first choice.  My guess is that it was Alpine Academy.  We don't hear a peep about the name if the school during the search and as soon as it's chosen, the name of the school comes out publicly.  While the practices if programs might be relatively similar, it's very clear which programs have no ethics when it comes to marketing or confidentiality.

4
Feed Your Head / Re: The next possible celebrity victim
« on: July 04, 2013, 04:22:44 PM »
Oscar, not that I'm usually one for defending these facilities, but there's a facility in Utah that has given up on a ton of publicity for whatever the real reason was.

If the name does come to light, which may or not happen, what's the benefit of attacking then?  Paris will now be close to home where her grandmother will be able to be involved in her treatment.  Isn't that what we should want?

5
Tacitus' Realm / Re: E-book: Janice's journey
« on: June 21, 2013, 11:13:47 AM »
In a culture where the companies making the alcohol (i.e. local wine and beer distributors) don't have enough of a market share to benefit from mass-consumption, and the advertisement of alcohol (and probably just about everything else) is regulated more than in the United States, parents have far more control in setting up the mores that drive alcohol consumption than they do in the States.

Anheiser-Busch and Miller Brewing Company are not in their marketing efforts disimilar to the tobacco companies.  It's in their business strategy to target youth to become loyal binge-users of their brand.  In America alcohol companies can have an impact alcohol drinking culture.  I imagine it's far different in Denmark.

6
CAN ~ Collective Action Network / Re: Human Rights Organizations
« on: June 20, 2013, 01:44:20 PM »
Human Rights Watch has done some work on the issue of juvenile justice in New York State but that was seven years ago already.  I don't think Amnesty International has touched this issue at all.  The ACLU in New York has also been involved in juvenile justice issues and their Colorado chapter was involved with the El Pueblo Ranch case.

7
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Amistad
« on: June 10, 2013, 01:45:48 PM »
Yes, I'm going to say better than the state hospital.  I can't vouch for how well he'll be treated, or how good the treatment will actually be.  But he's an adult.  I'm going to take a shot in the dark, and guess he smokes a lot of pot to deal with his overwhelming anxiety, and his parents aren't too thrilled to have him at home because of that.  

As long as he's being treated for mental health issues as opposed to substance abuse issues, I think he'll be ok, the hospital has all of the incentive to not screw him over too much.  And if he has a panic attack, it's not like they're going to send him to the state hospital over a panic attack.  

To conclude, I don't think he's being sent to a "program".  He's being sent to a psychiatric facility that could either be terrible or decent.  Unless his parents are going to pay out of pocket for the program and the hospital tries to keep him there involuntarily, if it's really that bad he'll be able to sign himself out.

8
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Amistad
« on: June 10, 2013, 11:34:27 AM »
I don't know what the adult housing system is in Florida, but I imagine he will be hospitalized then the social workers at La Amistad will try to get him approved for SSI and Medicaid, and try to find him housing, if his parents are kicking him out of the house.  Your friend could refuse all of this, and after the 72 hour hold, sign him self out into homelessness.

9
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Amistad
« on: June 10, 2013, 11:06:20 AM »
Correct me if I'm wrong, but typically an involuntary hospitalization is only allowed for up to 72 hours in Florida.  I can imagine that your friend is likely to be placed in a position where he's involuntarily hospitalized, and then discharged to outpatient treatment coerced under the threat of rehospitalization.  So no, he wouldn't be immediately placed in outpatient care, but if it's the insurance company that's going to pay for hospitalization, he's not going to be hospitalized that long, and as La Amistad has the full range of psychiatric services, I imagine they will self-refer to their outpatient clinic/day treatment program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Mental_Health_Act

10
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Amistad
« on: June 10, 2013, 07:38:13 AM »
While I'm sure the adolescent treatment facility is more steeped in the philosophies of NATSAP members, as far as your friend goes, I'm guessing he's going to experience a fairly typical adult psychiatric hospital with follow-up day programming at La Amistad's outpatient programs.

11
LGATs are not indicated for individuals with a trauma history (and in fact are likely harmful and counterindicated).  Many but not all programs utilize LGATs.  Many but not all youth who are referred to programs have a history of trauma.

Youth are exposed to LGATs well before it is conceivable that a thorough evaluation can be done to assess if they do in fact have a significant trauma history.  I know you put a lot of faith in third-party referrals, and the ability of a good ethical educational consultant to make this determination.  I don't think that the educational consultant system nor the evaluative (i.e. wilderness program) system is fined tune enough to distinguish between behavior that has trauma that has a root cause, and behavior that does not.

What I think is reasonable to ask of the industry, is to either take the LGAT out of their toolbox or to make damn sure that they're not applying this tool to the wrong person.  For those programs that are dependent upon LGATs as a significant piece of their intervention, this will hurt their bottom line.

12
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Programs and Politics: a connection?
« on: June 03, 2013, 01:15:17 PM »
Bad but in different ways, I think sums it up.  But in definable ways that are predictable given who the customer is in each case.  The kinds of reform that are achievable in each system are also different in terms of scope and speed that are also predictable.

There is an ethos in the TTI that says, "let the market sort it out", the "good programs" will rise to the top, and the "bad programs" will go out of business.  The TTI is largely in the business of alleviating parental anxiety about whether or not their child will grow into acceptable adults - that may have all kinds of negative side effects as programs try to achieve that goal at market price point (i.e. the price that parents are willing to pay that programs are willing to stay in business for) but there's an identifiable "product" in the process.

In the public sector system, the product is mostly centered around public safety (regardless whether it's the mental health, juvenile justice, or foster care system) and less about the individual youth.  And as the customers are often the same people as the licensors, as long as programs meet minimum standards (defined by the state agency), those programs are likely to stay in business.

13
Apparently not the first time this sort of thing has come up.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14758&start=15

Perhaps more evidence that these kinds of things don't come up clear out of the blue.  I think if we went through the archives here, we'd be able to ascertain which programs are the really terrible ones operated by unqualified scumbags.  

There are clearly "bad cop" programs that try to create behavior change through force, control, and punishment, and there are "good cop" programs that try to create behavior change through manipulative, purposeful relationship building.  

And while I wouldn't recommend this if a parent was looking for a program, because you just never know.  But you can tell a lot from a website what an organization's approach is if you know what to look for.

14
As it relates to our other conversations, Integrity House will,likely go out of business because parents will stop sending their kid before the state of Utah will suspend or revoke the license of a facility where the executive director was raping girls.

That in a nutshell is the difference between the public and private market.

15
You know, there are Yeshivas in Israel that function like some of the Mormon programs (the church affiliated ones) in Utah.  Not particularly driven by capitalism, as these programs are largely supported by private donations.

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