Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => The Troubled Teen Industry => Topic started by: Deborah on April 02, 2007, 12:46:38 PM
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NATIONAL NEWS
Tenn. opens new probe of ‘ex-gay’ facility Gay
Experts say children should not be forced into counseling
By EARTHA MELZER
Friday, July 01, 2005
The state of Tennessee continues to probe Love in Action, the Memphis facility that has drawn protests since a 16-year-old known as “Zach” blogged that his parents were sending him there for treatment intended to change his sexual orientation.
The Tennessee Department of Health has sent a letter to Love in Action notifying the group that it is suspected of operating illegally, according to Andrea Turner, communications director for the department.
Turner said that if the program is strictly faith-based it would not require licensing by the state, but that according to the group’s Web site, Love in Action has licensed counselors and provides services related to alcohol and drug addiction on site.
“If this is the case, they are required to be licensed as a drug and alcohol treatment facility in Tennessee,” Turner said.
If employees there are providing counseling on homosexuality, it is possible that they are operating outside their area of expertise, Turner added.
Legislation giving the health department the authority to issue cease-and-desist orders to unlicensed alcohol and drug treatment facilities goes into effect July 1. Turner said that the health department is considering whether the Love in Action facility is causing harm.
Rachel Lassiter, of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s communications office, said that the Department of Mental Health & Developmental Disabilities has also begun research on Love in Action and is writing a letter of inquiry to the facility to determine whether an official investigation is warranted.
Lassiter said that only licensed professionals should provide mental health care in Tennessee and that the state has an interest in making sure that whatever services are offered are beneficial.
Last week, the Department of Child Services investigated allegations of child abuse at the facility and determined that the allegations were unfounded.
Dr. Warren Throckmorton, a psychologist at faith-based Grove City College in Pennsylvania and a leading advocate for the view that sexual orientation can be changed, said that he believes that Love in Action is mixing ministry with treatment and that people can be damaged by sexual reorientation therapies offered by unprofessional practitioners.
Throckmorton emphasized that while a parent might compel a teen to attend church, a professional counselor is bound to obtain informed consent from a client and should not treat a minor solely because his parents are upset about his sexual orientation.
Love in Action advertises a therapeutic environment in which professional counselors help people overcome “addictive behaviors including homosexuality.”
Insurance covers ex-gays?
Throckmorton serves on the professional advisory board of Magellan, the country’s largest behavioral health insurance manager. Magellan handles behavioral health coverage for hundreds of health care plans and Medicaid.
This year, Magellan removed Throckmorton from his advisory role after critics expressed concerns about Throckmorton’s efforts to advance the idea that sexual reorientation counseling should be available to gays.
Magellan restored Throckmorton to his post after pressure from LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention, a Christian products and services company based in Nashville. Throckmorton said that he believes the fact that he was reinstated means that Magellan would cover patients’ costs associated with sexual re-orientation therapy.
Although homosexuality is not an illness, Jack Dresher, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual issues Committee, said that he believes some counselors offer therapies intended to reorient gays and bill insurance companies with the diagnosis “sexual disorder not otherwise specified.”
It is not clear how widespread this practice is. Magellan could not provide statistics on how frequently people are diagnosed with “sexual disorder NOS.” Some providers, including Throckmorton, do not accept insurance, and therefore would not be subject to monitoring by managed health plans.
Throckmorton said that most people who seek reorientation counseling are referred to practitioners through Exodus International, an umbrella group for “ex-gay” projects.
There is no referral system that guides people to professionals that specialize in sexual reorientation counseling. No schools provide specialized training in this area and so it is outside the area of expertise for most professionals.
Sexual reorientation and reparative therapy counseling presents ethical, legal and regulatory challenges.
The idea that sexual orientation is changeable is advanced by conservative groups like Exodus International and Focus on the Family.
In “Calculated Compassion: How the Ex-Gay Movement Serves the Right’s Attack on Democracy,” Surina Khan writes that the ex-gay movement provides political cover for anti-gay campaigns by repackaging them in kinder, gentler terms and attempting to ally itself with religious groups.
“The ex-gay movement is an integral part of the Christian Right, which promotes Christian nationalism, an ideology that seeks to use government laws and regulations to impose fundamentalist Christian values on the entire nation.”
Indeed, money from James Dobson’s Focus on the Family has funded both Exodus and the Alliance Defense Fund, a leading legal group opposing recognition of gay relationships. In her 1998 report Khan points out that Robert Knight of the Family Research Council has characterized the beginning of a major ex-gay publicity campaign as “the Normandy landing in the larger cultural wars.”
Ex-gays backers oppose forced treatment
But not even those who support making sexual reorientation available to adults believe that it is right to coerce a minor into undergoing such treatment.
Dr. Mark Yarhouse is often cited by the ex-gay movement. Yarhouse runs the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity at the religious Regent University in Virginia Beach. Yarhouse said that it is unethical to treat a minor against his or her will.
Arthur Goldberg is a board member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality and co-director of Jonah, a Jewish ministry that addresses unwanted same-sex attraction. Goldberg said, “We tell parents that unless someone is motivated to want to change, they are wasting their money.”
Shannon Mintner, a lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, has worked on hundreds of cases in which teens are forced into various types of treatment scenarios because their parents disapprove of their sexual orientation.
Mintner first became aware of this phenomenon when he was contacted by a teenage girl who had escaped from a psychiatric facility where she was undergoing forced treatment for lesbianism. Mintner was able to help the girl find an adoptive home with a San Francisco lesbian couple.
Mintner said that Love in Action’s attempt to reorient kids is unique only in that they are so open about what they are trying to do.
In 1995, Mintner was involved in a case in Memphis in which the group Parents & Friends of Lesbians & Gays helped a 16-year-old gay male seek emancipation from his parents because they were forcing him to attend reorientation counseling with a Memphis psychologist, Dr. Duff Wright, and planned to send him to either Love in Action, or another similar program.
Minter said that the Memphis Circuit Court judge agreed that the boy would be harmed by this treatment and indicated that he would sign the emancipation order. In a settlement agreement, the parents abandoned plans to send the boy to reorientation treatment.
In April, the Tennessee Department of Health permanently revoked Dr. Duff Wright’s license to practice as a psychologist, due to alleged ethics violations.
Mintner said that while he has been able to help young people on a case-by-case level, “What we have not yet been able to find a way to do is to develop a systemic response that would get at the heart of the issue.”
Discussion of Love in Action has permeated the Memphis media in recent weeks and Alex Polotsky of the Queer Action Coalition said that the group will continue its campaign of demonstrations against Love in Action.
“We want every person in America to know about this. No reasonable sane person would support this program,” he said.
Twenty-one-year-old J.M., who spoke on condition on anonymity, said that he was sent to Love in Action by his parents at the recommendation of a Christian counselor when he was 17.
“The place was like a Nazi camp. I lost faith in God, friends, family.”
J.M. said he is glad that Love in Action has come into the spotlight.
“I am optimistic for some point in the future, I’ve lived for brief periods in New York, New Jersey, Philly. They are not as close-minded about this; it is not as cruel,” he said.
http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-1/news/ ... enopen.cfm (http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-1/news/national/tenopen.cfm)
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
Ask the former Rev. Ted Haggard - he was cured of his homosexual demons in some kind of queer exorcism. He's still out of a job, so I guess no one believes it....
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
It's a popular political carrot on a stick in this country with which to lead around the "values voters"... "values" being defined by a bunch of really slick con artists who know how to make a great big scapegoat (example abortion (which the republicans would never dare actually tamper with), random wars on abstract concepts, and of course, GAY MARRIAGE!, edit: and don't forget the plague of FLAG BURNINGS... and the TERRISTSS that HATE OUR FREEDOMS!!!(don't mind us while we tap everybody's phones and email)) to further an agenda of what pretty much amounts to greed run amok. When the church goes to bed with the corporation, and the corporation goes to bed with the government, the peopel think they are free, and cheer on conquerers believing they are defending themselves while actually working for a corporate war machine... so deluded...Well folks, that's Psy's quick summary of America today.
And no i'm not a leftist actually. I believe in as little government as possible.
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
Ask the former Rev. Ted Haggard - he was cured of his homosexual demons in some kind of queer exorcism. He's still out of a job, so I guess no one believes it....
Nope. Dont feel one bit sorry for him. It's like a black member of the KKK. Rough equivalent of an Uncle Tom.
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Anybody who watches Fox's "Prison Break" is familiar with "The Company." What that might not know is that "The Company" is real.
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Is this love in action? Do only adults volunteer to go here or do people send their kids?
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
It's a popular political carrot on a stick in this country with which to lead around the "values voters"... "values" being defined by a bunch of really slick con artists who know how to make a great big scapegoat (example abortion (which the republicans would never dare actually tamper with), random wars on abstract concepts, and of course, GAY MARRIAGE!, edit: and don't forget the plague of FLAG BURNINGS... and the TERRISTSS that HATE OUR FREEDOMS!!!(don't mind us while we tap everybody's phones and email)) to further an agenda of what pretty much amounts to greed run amok. When the church goes to bed with the corporation, and the corporation goes to bed with the government, the peopel think they are free, and cheer on conquerers believing they are defending themselves while actually working for a corporate war machine... so deluded...Well folks, that's Psy's quick summary of America today.
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Psy, have you no heart? Flag burning... Its dangerous! have some compassion for the people whose lives are destroyed having to watch a visual metaphor.
Think of the soldiers fighting for our freedoms ...by killing masses of children, women, and old men in a country that just HAPPENS, in an extradinary example of pure coinicedence, to have tons of oil.
Unrealatedly, In another extradinary example of pure coincidence that oil and war is very lucrative to corporate interests who just happen to donate huge sums of $ to the Bush authorities or are the bush authorites themselves. But of course that has nothing to do with our noble war against the terrorists of 911, oops! i mean terrorists in general, oops! I mean bringing democracy to the middle east and watching it spread like a flower, oops! i mean fighting them there so we wont fight them here.
Yes I am aware I have given 5 different explanations that shift as the preceding one becomes indefencible but I have no memory of the past. I have nothing to be ashamed of. What did i just say?
As for the lord jesus being in bed with the corporations, dont you know Jesus is rewarding those folk with riches cause they are righteous, and why do you imply that I think this sort of thing just beasue my pastor/radio figure head says it beacsue he's been told to by the folk that own the stations and give him grants? Its all a coincidence. Pay no attention to the leviathon behind the curtain.
Stare at the floor, serve your betters by destroying yourself, and congratulate yourself on living inthe land of the free.
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It's a popular political carrot on a stick in this country with which to lead around the "values voters"... "values" being defined by a bunch of really slick con artists who know how to make a great big scapegoat (example abortion (which the republicans would never dare actually tamper with), random wars on abstract concepts, and of course, GAY MARRIAGE!, edit: and don't forget the plague of FLAG BURNINGS... and the TERRISTSS that HATE OUR FREEDOMS!!!(don't mind us while we tap everybody's phones and email)) to further an agenda of what pretty much amounts to greed run amok. When the church goes to bed with the corporation, and the corporation goes to bed with the government, the peopel think they are free, and cheer on conquerers believing they are defending themselves while actually working for a corporate war machine... so deluded...Well folks, that's Psy's quick summary of America today.
And no i'm not a leftist actually. I believe in as little government as possible.
Most Excellent Post :exclaim:
I concur, that post puts into words what I've been thinking for a while now....
Glad to finally have that off my chest..
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Is this love in action? Do only adults volunteer to go here or do people send their kids?
Kids get sent there. There was a case of a 16-year-old that blogged how he outed himself to his christian parents, how horrible there reaction was, and they forced him into this program.
Here is one article about him:
http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-22/news ... ayteen.cfm (http://www.washblade.com/2005/7-22/news/national/gayteen.cfm)
I've read the kid's blog and it would break your heart. For example, once his family discovered he was gay, they forbade him any contact with children in the extended family for fear he would molest them. He even wrote that he was considering suicide as alternative to attending the camp (which prompted the press storm as well meaning people tried to identify him). He also posted the progarms ridiculous rule book.
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
It's a popular political carrot on a stick in this country with which to lead around the "values voters"... "values" being defined by a bunch of really slick con artists who know how to make a great big scapegoat (example abortion (which the republicans would never dare actually tamper with), random wars on abstract concepts, and of course, GAY MARRIAGE!, edit: and don't forget the plague of FLAG BURNINGS... and the TERRISTSS that HATE OUR FREEDOMS!!!(don't mind us while we tap everybody's phones and email)) to further an agenda of what pretty much amounts to greed run amok. When the church goes to bed with the corporation, and the corporation goes to bed with the government, the peopel think they are free, and cheer on conquerers believing they are defending themselves while actually working for a corporate war machine... so deluded...Well folks, that's Psy's quick summary of America today.
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Psy, have you no heart? Flag burning... Its dangerous! have some compassion for the people whose lives are destroyed having to watch a visual metaphor.
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Then make your flag out of asbestos or some other flame resistant material.
Stop wasting our Govt's time with these kinds of stupid issues.
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I find it amazing that there are people who believe that sex and flag burning are the most important issues America needs to address. They are such non-issues.
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Hundreds of people from across the country are scheduled to attend the Freedom Conference and participate in workshops and individualized counseling sessions designed to help them out of being gay.
Rev. Jerry Falwell and Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International,
Hey. It's not just Exodus international.. Benchmark took me becuase my parents found out I was bi. And Lon Woodbury had the balls to tell me to think about "why i was sent there".. Oh .. i am so tempted.. so utterly tempted to post that letter.. but not on this thread..
Only in America does this sort of thing happen... Well it happens in china too... to be completly fair...
In the end you know they got his mind don't you...
And oh yeah.. it's program allright:
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zach_Stark
They got bioenergetics and workshops and
Well i guess their parents have a nice little closet case now... maybe he'll be forced to get married and have kids, and later snap out of it, and leave a broken home.. and then his parents will (ironically) condemn him for that. Oh this is all too too familiar.
It just appears to bbe less draconian than this: "Particularly controversial (and probably largely outdated) techniques include electroconvulsive therapy[26] and aversion therapy. Documented cases include electric shocks being administered to patients' genitalia, "sometimes paired with disturbing images, including a bowl of feces and pictures of Kaposi's Sarcoma lesions." The most recent reported incidences of these kinds of aversion therapy were in 1992.[27]"
Ya know.. that kinda reminds me of a lot of those videos they made us watch all the friggin time showing us where we would be without program...
Bit ya know thereis a good ending for the program though :"In 2005, 16-year-old Zachary Stark posted on his blog protesting his parents' decision to send him to an ex-gay camp. In 2006, 17-year old DJ Butler was driven to the same camp in handcuffs.[50] The camp, run by Love in Action ministries, was subsequently shut down when Tennessee authorities discovered that unlicensed staff had been administering prescription drugs to the patients.[51]"
Oh dear. Isn't that a tragedy.
In my personal opinion, the staff, and those operating such places, should be imprisoned for life... and that's being kind.
Oh but this one is funny... relapses: haha
Relapses and ex-ex-gays
Further information: Ex-ex-gay
Ex-gay John Paulk leaving a gay bar. (Photograph by Wayne Besen.)
Ex-gay John Paulk leaving a gay bar. (Photograph by Wayne Besen.)
* In 1979, Exodus International's co-founder Michael Bussee and his partner Gary Cooper quit the group and held a life commitment ceremony together.[53]
* John Paulk left Focus on the Family after he was spotted by reporters in a Washington, D.C., gay bar.[54] John Paulk is still married and champions the cause of the ex-gay movement.
* In 1986, Colin Cook, founder of Homosexuals Anonymous[/u], was discovered to be engaging in sexual acts with his patients. He claimed that the nude massages of other men should desensitize them against homosexual desires. In 1987, he was expelled from Homosexuals Anonymous for sexual activity, and in 1995 a similar scandal happened with his newly founded group FaithQuest Colorado. According to the Denver Post, Cook had engaged in phone sex, practiced long and grinding hugs, and asked patients to bring homosexual pornography to sessions so that he could help desensitize them against it.
I would just love to hear what those 12 steps are.
Oh .. dear me... they're already done in film format:
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_I%27m_a_Cheerleader
Inside i'm fuming.. really i am
:flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame: :flame:
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Perhaps every parent who is considering sending their off spring to be degayified (i assume mostly for religious reasons) should be forced to read the following book
http://www.amazon.com/This-Remarkable-G ... 1864484624 (http://www.amazon.com/This-Remarkable-Gift-Being-Catholic/dp/1864484624)
It was written by a catholic priest but more or less applies to all branches of Cristianity that obsess over who it is OK to have sex with.
I double dare you to post that letter psy
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How do you treat gayness? :question:
it's like trying to treat the colour of someone's skin/eye colour/race
I've never heard of anything so retarded in my life :roll:
It's a popular political carrot on a stick in this country with which to lead around the "values voters"... "values" being defined by a bunch of really slick con artists who know how to make a great big scapegoat (example abortion (which the republicans would never dare actually tamper with), random wars on abstract concepts, and of course, GAY MARRIAGE!, edit: and don't forget the plague of FLAG BURNINGS... and the TERRISTSS that HATE OUR FREEDOMS!!!(don't mind us while we tap everybody's phones and email)) to further an agenda of what pretty much amounts to greed run amok. When the church goes to bed with the corporation, and the corporation goes to bed with the government, the peopel think they are free, and cheer on conquerers believing they are defending themselves while actually working for a corporate war machine... so deluded...Well folks, that's Psy's quick summary of America today.
.
Psy, have you no heart? Flag burning... Its dangerous! have some compassion for the people whose lives are destroyed having to watch a visual metaphor.
.
Then make your flag out of asbestos or some other flame resistant material.
Stop wasting our Govt's time with these kinds of stupid issues.
MY GOD...CANT YOU TELL I WAS JOKING,?
what is this world coming to
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Perhaps every parent who is considering sending their off spring to be degayified (i assume mostly for religious reasons) should be forced to read the following book
http://www.amazon.com/This-Remarkable-G ... 1864484624 (http://www.amazon.com/This-Remarkable-Gift-Being-Catholic/dp/1864484624)
It was written by a catholic priest but more or less applies to all branches of Cristianity that obsess over who it is OK to have sex with.
I double dare you to post that letter psy
Oh gods... i cannot resist any longner.. the urge... Especially with that warning to natsap.. and i told long if he demonstrated he was non neutural one more time... it's just too great... gataaaa.a.,a.a i'm giving birth to a great big baby....
"however, suggests you have forgotten the reasons your parents placed you and are unable to move on since you seem to be stuck in your resentment."[/i]
::both::
Oh by the way.. he never responded to that letter.. pity.. i was planning on saving them all up for a rainy fornits day.
Oh... and don't worry lon... I didn't break my promise. You broke your neutrality by warning natsap... and i didn't even post the letter on fornts. (but good ol MR guest will be around here soon i'm pretty sure to quote it in full for archival purposes)... why thank you mister guest. (http://http://homepage.mac.com/psyborgue/hiLon.html)
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From: Michael Crawford
Date: February 19, 2007 4:13:11 AM EST
To: Lon Woodbury
Subject: Re: Un-banning
On Feb 19, 2007, at 12:30 AM, Lon Woodbury wrote:
Michael:
As I mentioned before, I have turned the decision over to Jena regarding
giving back your posting privileges, and I'm not going to undercut that.
Our brief exchange on the forum told me a lot. You made a global assertion
about IECA not doing anything on ethics. I pointed out that that was not
quite true, they did have an active ethics procedure, though their actions
might be less aggressive than might be desired.
Instead of acknowledging that you had over spoken, acknowledging the point,
and continuing, you simply relentlessly pursued your point by insisting
essentially they didn't have the police powers of the state to enforce their
decisions, thus your argument stood.
And still my argument stands. Am I obliged to accept your point of view simply because you presented a counterpoint? Perhaps i misspoke in my initial statement that "The IECA appears to have no method to enforce it's principles of good practice and has no means to investigate allegations of ethics breaches". I should have instead said "effective method" and "effective means" respectively. No private organization ever has the same level of power that the state has. I don't see what invalidates that point.
This told me you didn't listen and had a steel trap mind on the subject,
thus any further discussion with you was a waste of time.
This also told me that you are enamored with using whatever police powers
the state has to accomplish goals that you approve of, which to me is a very
left wing perspective that leaves out allowing the people to work things out
for themselves.
Isn't that sort of letting butchers regulate themselves, or the pharmaceutical industry? Do you see no reason for the FDA? Government regulation becomes necessary when an industry demonstrates it is unable, or unwilling to regulate itself effectively or at all. Show me an example... one example, of industry self regulation in the troubled teen industry.
The history of dealing with rebellious and out of control teens seems to me,
in short form:
1. The government's main asset is the use of force. The ancient Hebrews
stoned rebellious teens to death, the middle ages wasn't much better.
Currently, most of the deaths by restraint and abusive situations I hear
about are in highly regulated and under the heavy oversight of government
run facilities or those the government funds and dictates how to work with
children. It is well documented that usually kids are punished in these
facilities, not provided mental health services and recidivism rates are
extremely high.
Do you have any evidence to show that recidivism rates from private institutions are any better? And i mean peer-reviewed studies, not industry sponsored adverta-research. I agree that many abuses do happen in public institutions, but do you honestly believe they hold a monopoly on mistreatment?
However, this is the default treatment unless something
better is found, something that doesn't depend solely on politicians and
bureaucrats.
2. After alcoholism was determined to be an illness in 1962, we had a major
run on hospitalization for all kinds of objectionable behaviors. Currently,
it is too common to use drugs to maintain control, and although some
facilities seem to be decent, many of the other deaths and abuses occur
here. In this, the major part of the decisions are made by mental health
experts, and most are heavily regulated with strong government oversight.
3. The network I work with tried bringing parents into the solution (they
are mostly excluded in numbers one and two) as a balance.
You attempt to bring parents into the solution? How? Most private facilities i know of, including many you refer to, including Benchmark, heavily restrict and monitor communication between parent and child. How is this keeping parents in the solution?
The attempt is to
find a balance between government, mental health experts and parents to
provide a decent experience for those kids that need it. Each providing
some kind of check on the others. Professionals are the rule, but are not
allowed to have absolute control since that would bring the situation back
to number 2. It's a very tenuous balance, but I think offers more hope that
number 1 & 2.
4. Out of this, a number of programs and consultants piggy backed with less
responsible people, commonly using Finders Fees for marketing (cash for
kids) and cheaper behavioral modification methods. These are routinely
condemned by professionals, always do poorly in my surveys, and we wish a
way can be found to rein them in.
Oh. CEDU, and it's derivatives such as Benchmark? Are you aware Benchmark has no licensed counselors as staff? Are you aware they still use propheets (renamed to "Friendship Workshop"). Are you aware prophets is comprised almost verbatim out of material from est and Lifespring (both LGAT cults according to many experts). Are you aware they consider suicide attempts "manipulations"? These programs do poorly in your surveys?
Regarding finders fees... There is more than one way to skin a cat. Educational consultants may not always receive compensation for the placement of a child, but do they not receive graduation bonuses? In a facility where the kids cannot leave and/or graduation is guaranteed, is not a "graduation bonus" equal to a placement bonus for all practical purposes.
However, by demanding federal regulation on number 4, there is a strong
chance of destroying number 3, leaving number 1 and 2 as the only options
still standing.
In your situation, as near as I can tell, Benchmark did what Benchmark does,
and it was absolutely wrong for you, for whatever reason. Your relentless
attempt to prove them wrong,
I am attempting to shut them down. And like Deborah and HLA, I will not stop until I succeed. I do not need to prove them wrong, i know they are wrong. I am up to my eyeballs in evidence.
however, suggests you have forgotten the
reasons your parents placed you and are unable to move on since you seem to
be stuck in your resentment.
First of all. I was sent to Benchmark because my parents found out i am Bisexual. If you do not believe that I can send you a copy of their initial letter to Benchmark describing my "Issues". No legitimate mental health institution would have accepted a person for that reason. Benchmark, did not care. They accepted anybody for any person for any reason whatsoever (including no reason in some cases). Some parents just wanted to get rid of their kids and *feel* good about the decision.
My quarrel with Benchmark is *not* about my personal grudge or lingering resentment. I would have no problem with Benchmark if I had just been an isolated case and had since reformed. My problem with Benchmark stems from the knowledge that what happend to me, and what i saw happen to my friends, is still happening this very day. I was _lucky_. My parents realized they were being manipulated, came to visit, were appalled by what they saw, and "rescued me". I left everybody else behind. My quarrel with Benchmark is about them, and those still there. Do you find it so hard to believe that somebody could do something out of an altruistic motive?
Since that time, my parents and I have reconciled, learned to overcome our differences, and they are sorry they ever sent me to Benchmark. If they had not "rescued me", like 70% of the kids I knew, I would have ended up on the streets. They did not let anybody graduate (but a select few for testimonials). You don't believe me? Go to benchmark's old site (www.benchmarkeducation.net (http://www.benchmarkeducation.net)). Go to the internet archive (archive.org) and look up the site. They are using today the same exact testimonials that they have been using since they first put up a website. Benchmark claims a 97% graduation statistic (which is accurate only because they "graduate" everybody, even those who they drop on the streets). Benchmark claims they do not "drop kids on the streets". Perhaps you would like to speak to a few friends of mine i have found. Or better yet, you want to see Benchmark's finest graduates? Go down to Redlands California in March, and look in the drainage canals. Ask the kids how many graduation ceremonies they saw during their stay at Benchmark. During my entire 1 year stay at Benchmark, i saw only two graduation ceremonies. You want to talk about recidivism rates? What do you think a kid, dropped on the streets with no money, shelter, food, or property has to do to survive? Anything and everything. Is that a healthy environment for emotional growth?
Maybe you are just unaware of what happens. Maybe you think it is too ridiculous, too absurd, too unbelievable. I will stand by everything I state here, in court if necessary. If you have any questions as to "how do they get away with this", and it's not answered on my website, please ask me directly.
And, it is a very emotional reaction to
condemn a whole class of people you have not met (i.e. all the other private
parent-choice schools) based on your personal experience at this one school.
I do not necessarily condemn each and every private school. I condemn those programs derived from cults and quackery (Synanon, est, Lifespring ...) This is not slander. You have probably read about the APA's task-force report on LGATs (In which both Lifespring and Est were mentioned by name) and Synanon has a very public, very long, list of crimes. Mel Wasserman (former furniture salesman) based propheets (as well as other aspects of CEDU) on Est and Lifespring and hired many ex-synonites as staff members. You know this. You documented it well in your "Out of the Sixties" essay. Since CEDU's inception, many other "CEDU clones" have since started (Cascade, Benchmark, etc etc...). Randomly pick a school from your "Parent Empowerment Handbook" and google the backgrounds of the staff members.
I consider the original CEDU model poisonous and abusive. I cannot see anything good coming from it. Perhaps you could explain to me what was "good" about the CEDU model?
And, in general, I object to attempts to close down all private
parent-choice schools and programs, since I don't have faith that numbers 1
and 2 will be any better than in the past.
You may be right. But how common is it for kids to get referred to such public mental health institutions, in comparison with private programs? Private choice programs do not have admissions criteria, relying to educational consultants and/or the parents themselves to both make a diagnosis, and suggest a cure.
Would parents be so quick to institutionalize their kids if this industry did not exist? Many programs advertise in a "we fix em all" manner, implying they are able to cure anything from asbergers to ADHD to bipolar depression. Are these schools implying they can fix problems that cannot be (biochemical for instance), or should not (sexual orientation) be fixed?
I'm responding to this not as an argument regarding banning you, but as
another attempt to see if you can discuss something, rather than argue your
predetermined conclusion.
Is a "predetermined conclusion" similar to "point of view"? Would you rather I not have one? Would you rather I had not done my research and concluded anything? Without such things, discussions become lectures.
And, as a test to see if you can contain yourself
from posting it on fornits.
I'll be perfectly frank here:
I have stated my policy on my e-mails publicly several times. I do not publicly post any private e-mails unless they are from educational consultants, NATSAP, or otherwise connected to the troubled teen industry.
I will not post this on Fornits for now. Why? Because i am willing to give *you* the benefit of the doubt. I generally consider educational consultants to be "hostiles" because so many of them have so few scruples. I have considered *you* a hostile because i _highly_ suspect you banned me for convincing Lori not to send her kid to a TBS. The girl clearly didn't need a TBS. Yes I know that. And if you knew the facts you would agree as well (i keep in contact). A TBS however, would not have cared, and could very likely have wrecked that girl. Looking at this from a business standpoint, i can see why you might ban me... somebody is in your butcher's shop on Thanksgiving handing out fliers on trichinosis... I was "pissing in your coffee".
As much as i find it very hard to believe, I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt for now, and as such, will not consider you a "hostile" until you prove otherwise. There are people in this world who have no ethics. I hope you are not one of them.
If you request that i have an open mind, I make the same request of you. You may think you know what many of these schools are like but, at least in the case of Benchmark, you had the wool pulled over your eyes.
Mike
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Oh yeah.. One of these days Reggie North is gonna have something to say about Struggling Motards also.
:rofl:
BTW.. Did that one kid, the 16 year old, end up going to dequeerification camp? I hope not.. seems like a horrible thing to do to a kid who is probably confused about his sexuality. I mean what the hell.. who really knows what the hell they are at 16. Pretty sad that the parents would get so hung up on a point like sexual orientation when obviously their kid had enough going on about himself to fire up his own blog to get the word out.
and for the last time..
13 men walking around with each other in the middle east? LOLS.. come on folks.. Sausage party!
I'm surprised Jesus didn't limp more on the way up the hill with his cross if you know what I mean.
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Oh yeah.. One of these days Reggie North is gonna have something to say about Struggling Motards also.
:rofl:
BTW.. Did that one kid, the 16 year old, end up going to dequeerification camp? I hope not.. seems like a horrible thing to do to a kid who is probably confused about his sexuality. I mean what the hell.. who really knows what the hell they are at 16. Pretty sad that the parents would get so hung up on a point like sexual orientation when obviously their kid had enough going on about himself to fire up his own blog to get the word out.
They mind-fucked him yes. after a year or so of program... When he snaps out of it (and that's a when and not an if) his reaction to his parents is going to be... just a little bit ugly.
The problem is that parents truly believe that thier kids are going to burn eternally in hell... so of course.. they do anything... dead insane in jail man... scare and lure.. why do all these things have the same pattern...
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Sometime you need to see the ugly before you see the pretty. Parents really do need to look at their children from the perspective that these kids are like containers. They contain the sum total of what you put into them. The kid of crap the parents are having pumped into this kid no dout is going to run over in a very ugly way.
I remember a kid at 3 springs who went home and went off the chain about 6 months later. Was a very ugly and painful experience for his parents. They were all for sending him right back to 3 springs, but thankfully wiser heads prevailed and after a short 3 day return visit to three springs the boy willingly entered into a local outpatient substance abuse program and stayed at home.
Last I heard the family is doing much better now that the father went out on a limb for the first time in his son's life and actually listened to his kid rather than ignoring anything his son had to say.
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PENINSULA VILLAGE in Knoxville TN does not claim to treat homosexuality but once they have a gay kid in lockdown they VERY STRONGLY discourage it with some very heavy handed techniques.[/b]
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Why can't people let other people be who they are?
If my sons came home and said they are gay/straight/bi, I so wouldn't give a crap, they are still my sons and I love them regrdless, who cares, it takes allsorts to keep this world an interesting place to be
Anyway if God didn't want gays on this planet, he would make sure everyone was straight
Reading back, someone mentions about catholics and being gay - I am catholic, any church I have attended welcomes everyone and anyone, regardless of sexuality, race, religion or whatever .. they are learning to be more accepting
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Yeah they gotta be more accepting with all those gay priests buggering young boys
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Treatment for homosexuality implies it's a negative behavior followed by choice, like addiction. No one can change someone's sexual preference, perhaps they might coerce homosexuals into repressing their true nature. Fuck that, I've seen too many kids end up as suicides because they didn't want to shame mom and dad by being who they are. I'm guessing this program in TN is Christian based. If you are a fundamentalist Christian, homosexuality is an abomination to you, because in the Bible there is no gray area on the subject, it's a mortal sin.
Time for people to get their heads out of their asses and practice a little religious reform. I haven't seen any Christians sacrificing rams to Yahweh recently, so I guess that was discontinued because it's barbaric. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and apply that to everyone.
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This thread seems to have moved on without the story or link posted in the first message. Sorry, the system wasn't accepting it and I'm just getting back to it. The story is posted now in the first page and here's a follow up.
Tennessee to Close Home for ‘Curing’ Homosexualsby Brendan Coyne Sept. 21, 2005 – The Tennessee Department of Health is seeking to shutter a group home operated by a religious organization that claims it can "cure" homosexuality through prayer. The grounds for closing the facility rest on the operators’ failure to obtain a license, not on the content of the "therapy" provided to participants in the program.
Reportedly, the home’s operator, Love in Action International, has until Friday to cease operations.
Health Department officials have conducted at least two separate investigations of the organization’s religious operations this year, one prompted by the online postings of a teenager whose parents signed him up for the program after he announced his sexual orientation.
Early this summer, 16-year-old Zach Stark’s weblog postings detailing the regime he endured at Refuge, the Love in Action Tennessee camp, spurred international outcry and condemnation of the group’s methods. Under pressure, the state initiated a child abuse investigation, but ultimately cleared Refuge of any wrongdoing.
A subsequent visit, however, found the group to be providing housing and personal care for "mentally ill" people without the required state license.
In an interview with Southern Voice, Rachel Lassiter, deputy press secretary for Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen, said, "The clients were determined to be mentally ill because some of them had been treated by psychiatrists and were on medication."
Former Refuge clients have told the media that staff at the camp administered psychiatric drugs and tests to them while they were at the camp.
On September 12, the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities ordered the home’s operators to either obtain a license or cease operations. After the group failed to respond, the Department sent a second notice setting a September 15 license filing deadline.
In a statement lauding Tennessee’s action, Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) noted that the move sets the stage for other states to follow suit. "We hope this will serve as notice to other practitioners of this junk science known as ‘reparative’ or ‘conversion’ therapy that their days are numbered," said PFLAG spokesperson, Ron Schlittler. "And we hope that this action by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health is noticed by similar agencies in other states."
Representatives of Love in Action said they are communicating with state officials about issues in the order. The organization has indicated that it intends to comply with the order.
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As I thought - Christian based.
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As I thought - Christian based.
Of course.. and associated with Jerry Fallwell, whose influence in the reagan administration had a good deal to do with why it ignored the AIDS crisis and just let all those "faggots" die off.