Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

Anne- that adds nothing to this discussion.  

Psy- Nothing was really mis-represented to us regarding the therapy. We were given a pretty good summary of what would occur in terms of the number of groups per week and the amount of time he would spend with his therapist (called an Advisor). There wasn't a whole lot of written correspondence back and forth. While my son was there we communicated by email and phone. Before he was there we visited Carlbrook, met with students and staff, interviewed and were interviewed ourselves.  It was not at all certain that Carlbrook would accept our son.  He was very borderline.

I believe the removal of all the creature comforts mentioned was a good thing.  The things that DID work about the place would not have worked if cell phones, etc had been available to the kids.  There were no huge complaints about all that from the kids.  There was plenty to do and the days were pretty full, except for the weekends which could get boring.

hanzo- the huge majority of kids who finish (which is most of the kids that start) finish in the 14-15 months originally planned. There really is no push to keep kids longer.  I think there is a clear recognition by senior management (based on their own history at program) that the longer a kid is there the more potential there is for "unrest".  There appears to be an optimum time where a "good" program kid will really buy in and leave with warm, fuzzy feelings and that has been pegged at 14-15 months.  Occasionally a kid will stay past program "graduation" if they have one quarter or semester of high school left, but that is by special permission and is actually not encouraged.

Kids who leave the program early usually have turned 18 and walk, have been too difficult (like my son) or are pulled because the parents disagree with something that is going on (meds management etc)

KSA1: did you get my emails? was that exactly like Carlbrook, or was Carlbrook softer?
das1: well they fed us fine
das1: and i dont remember it being that cold
das1: but other than that its pretty much the same
das1: and the structure of the workshop is all the same
KSA1: did they yell at you and force you to make stuff up?
das1: yeah
das1: they didnt force anyone to make anything up
KSA1: it sounds like it is designed to brainwash you- but I thought you liked the workshops
das1: i dont know they were ok
das1: but its like the girl said
das1: if you are cunning and manipulative enough it doesnt get to you
KSA1: like you
das1: because you can play the system and not have your reality screwed with
das1: everyone at carlbrook was weak
das1: i just sat there and let them yell at me

das1: its not just the workshop thats coercive or designed to brainwash you...its the entire school
das1: the whole structure and constitution of the place is designed carefully so that its much easier to go along with it and "buy in" than it is to resist - internally and externally
das1: some of those kids are so fucked up no therapy will be effective

Until I can get more info, I reposted this Im conversation.

When new kids came in, they started a new peer group up to a cut-off date.  I think there were about 12 to 15 in a peer group.  They were Greek letters (Alpha, Beta etc)  

The parents I saw ranged from totally buying in to one spouse buying in and the other strongly resisting to both totally befuddled.  It was very inconvenient for the staff if the parents were always complaining, interfering or calling.  I understood that- the staff worked long hours and had a lot of kids to deal with.  I thought everyone was pretty responsive to emails, calls etc.

I spoke to him briefly a little while ago.  
He said there were three group therapy sessions a week. There was rarely a specific topic.  Someone would begin by saying, "There's something I would like to take about."  It would go from there.

The more senior levels did have power over the lower levels. I asked if there were abuses of this power and he said, "Of course." He said there was some ordering around of other kids to do certain things or criticizing and meanness.

Neither did any one person at Carlbrook.  Very few individuals ever have "absolute power".  However, I don't even think absolute power, whatever that is, necessarily means corruption.  It takes an ABUSE of power to have corruption.   Built in checks and balances reduce the potential for abuse (speaking generally, not about CB)

Deborah- they might have some trouble with their insurance coverage if there is a finding of fraud or willful misconduct. Sometimes there are exclusions for those kinds of things in the policies.  They might lose coverage, which could mean no $$$ for the plaintiffs even if they prevail.

"What is the desire to make a bad thing better? I'm sorry but in mind if that program is broke and busted for a reason then good riddance to it. Lets try not to recreate it and improve on it when the core underlying model is still pretty much the same."

I agree with the analysis in TSW's post above. I guess no one has come up with a better model starting from scratch, and there is still a perceived need for a therapeutic school that provides academics and some emotional growth work.  I DO think Carlbrook tried to improve the model, probably in part because the school founders had been at Cascade, and realized what didn't work and what was harmful (one would hope).  I am wondering if it was too easy to slip back into some of the failings of the CEDU model, though.

As for staff, I think the founders (hiring committee) were pretty careful. There were some senior people who were excellent- I watched them work with kids and families and also had input from my son and other kids (during and after they were at the program). There were some younger men and women being trained, too. That doesn't bother me as long as they are monitored and have the right attitude towards the work they are doing and the kids they are impacting. My son told me that there were a few crazies there.  One man (got fired) actually changed my son's name and wouldn't call him by his "real" name because he thought it sounded juvenile. My son had to answer to a different, although similar, name.  There was a female counselor who was into the power-trip.  I could tell that the majority of the people who worked at Carlbrook really cared about these kids and wanted to help them in every possible way.

There was more than one nurse, if I'm remembering correctly, and I found the medical staff to be very competent. My son was NOT on any psychiatric meds, but did have a couple of minor illnesses and things while he was at Carlbrook and everything was diagnosed properly and handled well.  

His reading was not censored, although he was put on "book bans" at one point so he would talk to people during his free time.  I think he wound up not obeying these bans.  

CB was pretty selective about the type of kid they would admit. Obviously, some misfits (like my son) slipped through, but the group of 100+ kids was pretty similar in terms of the level of seriousness of the issues.  There were a number of prep school kids who had screwed up in enough ways to wind up at Carlbrook, but who would ultimately wind up in college and do pretty well.  There were a few kids with serious enough substance issues that they wound up back in drug treatment not too long after leaving Carlbrook.

Psy- A private letter to your parents from the school is probably not a "publication" as required by law to show libel.  It IS a writing, and it did adversely impact you, presumably, so it could be actionable as a malicious tort.