Fornits

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

Let me address that page one thing at a time.

Question: do they in fact have BAs?

Answer:  Yes, All Staff have Bachelors degrees, however the field is questionable.  I have a degree in Outdoor Education for example.  Other people there had degrees in varying fields some of which did not directly relate to social services.


**THE REST OF THESE POINTS WILL ADDRESS THE WEBPAGE LISTED ABOVE WITH QUOTES AND ANSWERS.***

DISCLAIMER -  THESE ANSWERS ARE BASED SOLELY ON THE ONE PROGRAM I WORKED FOR. OTHERS ARE WELCOME TO THEIR OWN INSIGHT AND OPINIONS.

Statement: Qualified consulting psychologists and psychiatrists, so your child has access to professional psychiatric care. We also work with your referring professional to make sure he or she is still involved in your child?s care.

Answer:  The only qualified medical people on site were a RN and an LPN and a Doctor who would come on campus once a week.  The RN and LPN would be there Monday through Friday.  No qualified medical professional was on site Saturday or Sunday and nights during the weekday. I do believe we had a psychiatrist that would come on campus once a month to evaluate the residents and make medication changes.  Most of the "therapy" advertised was conducted by Direct Care Counselors and cabin supervisors also known as Family Service Workers.  These group "therapy" sessions typically included watching a movie that was recorded from :ifetime or a movie about drug and alcohol use.  We watched 28 Days with Sandra Bullock when exploring alcoholism.  These "therapy" sessions happened twice a week and only lasted an hour.  Most of the time was spent cleaning and doing yardwork called "vocational" work.


Statement: Direct Care Counselors, who work with your child on a daily basis, hold at least a bachelor degree in social science or therapeutic recreation.

Answer: Average turnover for this position was 3 months. Even less in some cases.  People just had to have a Bachelors Degree period.  Most activities were supervised by the Counselors.  Counselors were also expected to cook for the group if the girls did not have the "privilege" to cook.


Statement: Family Service Workers, who will be working with your whole family, have a minimum of a bachelor degree in social science and are supervised by someone with a master?s degree in counseling or a related field.

Answer:  Bachelors Degree needed in anything and simply an entry level position similar to a counselor position.  I could have been a Family Service Worker but I would have had to be a counselor first.  These positions were considered similar to a supervisory position over the counselors but were on the same wavelength as counselors.  Some people who were in the position were no more qualified to conduct therapy sessions as I was as a counselor.


Statement: Training.

Answer: Yes, there was training.


As far as the school is concerned, I'm sure the teachers were qualified.

of course, i apologise it was a knee jerk reaction to a subject matter that has been rather like tearing off a scab of an old wound and making it bleed again.  to give an idea of what i went through at three springs, i'm going to post my story below....  


****** MAY TRIGGER SOME PEOPLE*****

When I graduated college, I obtained a job that was extremely emotionally damaging. I worked as an adolescent youth counselor for a company called Three Springs. Their entire website consists of lies. They talk about the success of the program and how therapeutic it is for the children. The *state* Department of Juvenile Justice supported the program I went to. All the children who attended were legally in the custody of the state for a period of 2 years. They had kids there who were only there temporarily until permanency could be obtained. Eventually the state lost funding for their temporary programs and shut down the ?shelter? at the facility.

Three Springs had boy programs and girl programs. The one I worked with was girls? only. They would leave us alone with 10-12 teenage girls. These girls would range in age 11-18 with the average age being around 16. Most of the girls were in custody due to truancy, stealing, drug, and alcohol use. These girls had a temper that could not be matched sometimes. I went home with bruises from some of these kids.

Throughout the entire employment, I was having panic attacks and crying for sometimes 6-8 hours at a time. I could not bring myself to stop crying at times. When I would get it under control, I would be good for about 1 or 2 hours then go back to crying. I couldn?t mentally function or physically bring myself to function. There came a time when I was so tired and exhausted mentally and physically that I just shut myself off from everything and everyone. I became a zombie. I have since not cried like that and sometimes I wonder if I am ok because I don?t cry as often as I would like to. I wonder if it?s ok sometimes to not feel emotion or if sometimes I feel too much emotion. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision to quit and leave or if it was as bad as I thought it was.


***Actual Story as written in October of 2004***

i quit my job Friday September 10th 2004 and its a decision i DO NOT regret.

The only true regret i have is that i did not get a chance to process with the children and tell the children they are not the reason i quit the job.

i worked at an adolescent treatment facility that focused on an aspect in the outdoors.. or an outdoor treatment program. affectionately called OTP by the courts. The kids sent to the facility were in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice. these kids had charges against them in most cases would cause them to be committed to the state for a period of 2 years. several of them came from broken families and broken times. several of them were victims of rape, abuse, and incest in their own families. several of them had lives and friends that were threatened by gangs. this treatment facility was designed to help them gain responsibility and help them put their lives back in order. BULL S***! You will see the reason why i say this later in this story... read on.

The kids were ok, they were in the process of getting their lives together.... however through out this process, and the main reason why i quit was because of the Administration.

The Administration was abominable. The Administration refused to look out for the safety and health of ANY of the counselors employed at the facility. In more than 90 days of employment, i did not recieve any positive reenforcement, in the form of notes/encouraging words, that i was doing at least really well in one area. None of my co counselors recieved any positive words either. Most of the feedback given us was in the form of negative criticism and instead of contsructive criticism it became destructive.

The Administration left Counselors each alone with 10-12 teenage girls who WILL gang up on you and beat the Shit out of you if they so desire. Not to mention, these girls will hurt each other. i had bruises on my arms from trying to contain one of these girls while the girl was trying to run away. I have also gotten threatened by one of the girls. One counselor has been beaten up by one of the girls at the facility. The girl apparently used a metal pole and the counselor had to be pulled away by fellow counselors and removed from the situation where the counselor promptly fell into unconciousness. The girls have bit, kicked, and otherwise done everything but pull a gun or knife on us.

i guess the red flag should have gone up when i heard the story of the counselor being beaten up.

The second red flag should have gone up when i heard that a counselor locked herself in the bathroom because she didnt want to be with the children. She was scared to be with them. She was also having panic attacks due to the stress of the job and being around the children. She wasnt the only counselor who had panic attacks either.

My third red flag should have been standing tall and proud when 2 co counselors walked out mid shift. One counselor did that two months ago and one counselor did that 2 weeks before i quit.



About a week and a half before i quit, i sat for 26... thats twenty six hours in one room with 2 kids that were refusing to do anything and:
1. I had no instructions on how to deal with them
2. I had no breaks except for 4... 5 minute potty breaks

If that isnt psychologically damaging i dont know what is.

There should have been a fourth red flag there when i found out that a fellow counselor had returned to therapy because of the children and lack of support from the administration. Her therapist said to her, where you work is psychologically damaging and is not healthy for anyone. He wanted to put her back on medication.


So Friday, September 10, 2004 I call in i say "hi... i quit" the administration laughed and then realised i was serious after i wasnt laughing. i talked to the director who gave me the whole schpiel about being unprofessional and not giving 2 weeks notice. i said effective immediately i quit! I had gone to speak to them once with solutions to the problems, each time i stated a solution i got the "we cant do that because" or "thats not going to work because". The second time i went to speak to the administration, i told the director "i want to quit" and she launched into this entire speech on how young people today dont have the drive to succeed and the want to see things through to the end and that i was being very unprofessional by telling her i wanted to quit and not giving two weeks notice. i told her i said i wanted to quit... i then said i didnt say "i quit".

This job got so bad that i was calling my mom on just about every shift in tears. i shut off emotionally for 2 weeks and was like a zombie and it scared me because i didnt feel that balance.

i called my father September 10 in tears before i was supposed to go on shift i said... dad i want to go back and work at petsmart ( a place that i used to work and it was hell i hated it when i left for college) he's like damn its bad! I was having panic attacks on every shift and every off shift right before i had to go into work. i decided for my emotional and physical health and safety and sanity that i needed to get the hell out of there.

This place needs to be shut down by the state.[ This Message was edited by: mbnh31782 on 2006-06-17 23:31 ]

off topic, yes i help out with perverted-justice.com.

I used to work for Three Springs.  The company is based out of Huntsville Alabama.  I am curious if anyone has had any bad experiences with Three Springs.  I know I have, and I was a counselor not a client.  I do not remember much of what happened to me as a counselor from May 2004 to Sept 2004.