Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Facility Question and Answers => Topic started by: Anonymous on February 26, 2008, 02:25:33 PM
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Does anyone out there have any experience with Uinta Academy. It's only for girls and seems warm and fuzzy but I have concerns.
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It is warm and fuzzy...good people...not punitive...and really more just a place for safe passage. They don't limit contact with parents and are pretty much an open book.BWMAW
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What exactly do you know about the place?
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I know it's on the small side w/ about 35-40 girls, not really a level system altho there are points to earn privs, students get plan and prepare meals w/ supervision and dietary input, & that the off campus activities and trips are not based on being a "3 or a 4" as would be the deal w/ other homes. Seems kind of Stepford wife tho' since the girls I've met seem very preppie and I don't know how someone outside that norm would like it.
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Can they leave anytime they want to? Can they report incidents of abuse to the police? Are they forced to participate in therapy sessions?
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You may investigate by asking around in this myspace group (http://http://groups.myspace.com/Uintaacdemy)
According to the postings they do have levels and they have made the more strict along the way. They have moved the program but they have a transition house on the old campus, which explains why they are talking about an east and a west campus.
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From reading through what the girls say on the myspace group, this one appears to be fairly harmless, but it bears some watching as they all do because sometimes they start for the right reasons and then greed takes over and pretty soon they are just another moneygrubbing torture pit.
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Promise a lot but in the end they don't live up to their "highly ethical", "we'll REALLY work with you" P.R. Very good at expecting the girls to act responsibly but man if they think you're too much trouble and unlikable don't plan on them helping transition you or letting your parents make arrangements. It's like, get out and get out now. And it's funny how 2 people can have the same behaviors but only one of them is considered not working the program. Your reports look good and are positive for months and then, in one fell swoop, they unload all sorts of C*** in one to justify their decisions. Strangely enuf it never comes up in therapy either. Jeff talks a great sales pitch but he's not very good at practicing what her preaches and Kristi is like Darth Vader--the staff quakes in fear around her and she is probably the final decision maker on most stuff. Unfortunately, if she's not around nothing gets done like even doctor's appt. Someone should send her to a basic management principles class. But then, Uinta's not creepy or harsh and the staff is generally good. They let the girls do a lot more than other places and don't make you feel singled out and worthless and it's not really punitive. In the end the head guys were just disappointing as people. I guess I did learn something there.
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I have googled them and found our own Fornits Wiki page (http://http://www.secretprisonsforteens.dk/fornitswiki/index.php/Uinta_Academy) about the place. The only odd thing is that they urge the families to live like they are on the facility when their child is on homevisit.
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Tinktonk, looks like your still trying to find yourself and still want to blame. I know for a fact that this program scholorships many girl and their families. I also know that sometime parents have to take the girls out abruptly for a myriad of reasons. I'm so thankful that the program staff are keeping ALL of the girls there safe by removing those that are aggressive and disruptive. It's not any programs responsibility to make you change, only provide the opportunity to do so. The irony here is it appears you were one of those that had to leave, didn't want to be there, but want to blame the program and people for that. Where's the personal responsibility.
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Tinktonk, looks like your still trying to find yourself and still want to blame. I know for a fact that this program scholorships many girl and their families. I also know that sometime parents have to take the girls out abruptly for a myriad of reasons. I'm so thankful that the program staff are keeping ALL of the girls there safe by removing those that are aggressive and disruptive. It's not any programs responsibility to make you change, only provide the opportunity to do so. The irony here is it appears you were one of those that had to leave, didn't want to be there, but want to blame the program and people for that. Where's the personal responsibility.
Uh, she's a kid? She's not supposed to have "personal responsibility"? You as a mother are supposed to have personal responsibility. You did such a piss-poor job raising your kid that she needed full time therapeutic care. Where’s your personal responsibility?
What’s with the parents and individuals involved with these places all being so crazy? This parent proves the need to keep an eye on this place.
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I think UA mom is the one who is deluding herself. Again, there is LOTS of abnormal, violent behavior w/ girls throwing plates, setting fires. It just really involves who is "likable". Just wait until your child comes home. There will be a honeymoon stage and everything seems great and then 6 months or so pass and welcome back conflict. Just look at My Space or Facebook to see how well some of these success stories are doing.
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Our daughter was there for 15 months, so have some personal experience with this facility. Any specific questions?
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What was your experience with this facility?
How old is your daughter?
What was her experience?
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Our daughter was 15-16 when she was there. Physically, it is a very nice facility. We felt that the school program was really a weakness, as basically it is just an on line curriculum with people there supervising. Our daughter had some extra needs that weren't addressed very well. Every thing is billed as "extra" if you request anything beyond the basic program. And for our daughter, she needed more than just an on line school program. The administration came across in quite a different way than what was truly accurate. We felt that the director emphasized that he took a personal interest in each girl and in reality, we did not see this. Our daughter actually graduated from this program. There was no follow up program at all, and when we asked for additional help for her, it was prohibitively expensive and impractical. I think that it is important to find a program that is a good fit for each girl, and this was not a great fit in our daughter's circumstance. Hope this is helpful.
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Thanks for answering my questions.
Can you tell me, why did you leave her there.... for 15 months?
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She was engaging in highly risky, dangerous behavior, flunking out of school and putting other family members in danger on a daily basis. We were advised to find a safe place for her by a professional. It was a tortuous decision.
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She was engaging in highly risky, dangerous behavior, flunking out of school and putting other family members in danger on a daily basis. We were advised to find a safe place for her by a professional. It was a tortuous decision.
All that is fairly subjective. I've heard parents apply those terms to all sorts of things which may or may not necessarily be appropriate. Risky, dangerous behavior could apply to just hanging around the boys or god forbid, having sex, depending on the parent. "Flunking out" could mean she got a few 'B's instead of straight 'A's, again, depending on the parent. Putting family members "in danger" could apply to anything from smoking pot or drinking in the home, or all sorts of things... and "professional" advice is highly dependent on the competence of the "professional" in concern.
Any specifics? I don't mean to imply that you sent your kid to program for minor reasons, but it would help us to understand if you clarified.
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I will give you some examples. The professional was a pediatric psychiatrist who was well trained and very experienced. The flunking out of school was receiving staight "F's" in school. The risky behavior involved sneaking drug dealers into our house at night while we were sleeping. People who bragged that they had killed other people and had criminal records. The self destructive behavior included cutting, suicide attempts, taking rides in cars with strangers at night. Our other children were put in dangerous situations. Our daughter assaulted them and was quite abusive to them on a regular basis.
I don't think that any parent (at least we didn't) wants to send their child away. Our thinking was that we she needed to get through high school and she needed to stop harming herself and putting herself in harm's way. Although Uinta Academy was not a success for her, we did ultimately find another program that helped her complete a HS education and taught her some self preservation skills which have helped her.
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you mean another TBS...another program?!
So how long did your daughter live away from you?
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2 1/2 years.
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I don't think that any parent (at least we didn't) wants to send their child away. Our thinking was that we she needed to get through high school and she needed to stop harming herself and putting herself in harm's way. Although Uinta Academy was not a success for her, we did ultimately find another program that helped her complete a HS education and taught her some self preservation skills which have helped her.
What was the other program, if you don't mind my asking...
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Montcalm School for Girls in Van Wert, OH
It is run by a non-profit: Starr Commonwealth.
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http://www.montcalmschools.org/montcalm ... s-my-place (http://www.montcalmschools.org/montcalm-schools-alternative-programs-my-place)
NO staff listed at mountcalm
NO staff listed at mountcalm
Red Flag. Or do medically accredited bodies often keep the identities of the doctors in their employ a secret?
Montcalm Schools
13725 Starr Commonwealth Rd
Albion, Michigan 49224
Toll Free: 866.244.4321
Local: 517.629.5591
Fax: 517.629.4650
Email: [email protected] (http://mailto:[email protected])
Montcalm Schools for Girls
15145 Lincoln Highway
Van Wert, Ohio 45891
Toll Free: (866) 244-4321
Local: (419) 238-4051
Fax: (419) 238-5571
Email: [email protected]
Another red flag
Power of the Peer Group
Nobody has the right to hurt and everybody has the responsibility to help. There’s a culture of caring at Montcalm and you’ll see it everywhere. There is no ganging up here or deliberate provoking to get a reaction. This is a safe, nurturing environment where a girl can let her guard down and learn to trust.
= peer denunciation, using detainees to abuse other detainees, possibly restrain other detainees
Part of Something Bigger
Helping young people develop a stronger foundation of social interest allows them to discover in themselves what it really means to be connected to the world they live in. It’s that “missing piece” that solidifies a strong and healthy self-concept. At Montcalm, students are not only encouraged and guided to help other group members in daily activities, but to join together as a group to help people in their communities.
= slavery, foced labor
Oh what you see when you've lived through it and can see through the window dressing
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To the parent, what state do you live in? I want to withhold judgment, but why do I get the sense you live in neither Utah or Ohio. The first placement is an understandable mistake. But two separate placements in two RTC's thousands of miles away from each other, huh? I pray for your sake and your daughter's sake that you live in Ohio or at least in a neighboring state. I won't say that makes the decision to use Starr Commonwealth a good decision, just something that makes more sense.
Otherwise you really do sound like a parent who had an extremely difficult child, and you didn't want to be a parent to that child anymore, and found places far enough away from home that it wasn't reasonable for you to visit.
From NYRA a post about Starr Commonwealth in Michigan:
Hey y’all. I’ve been lurking on this forum and I got to say I LOVE everyone here and their stories. It’s about time we show the world what these places are really like!
Starr Commonwealth must be stopped. I have a lot of INTERESTING TALES to tell you. <g> Understand that I’m not exaggerating or making up ANYTHING. It’s all 110% true so help me God.
They don’t help kids at all. They really suck. I was there for about three years. (1999 to 2001) They WOULD NOT LET ME LEAVE JUST BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T LIKE ME. It’s because they were homophobic and I wasn’t shy about being gay. I wasn’t a self-loather and it made people feel uncomfortable.
I am fueled with SO MUCH ANGER about it sometimes, but I’m glad that it’s a part of my life that’s over. I’m 23 now.
They claim they listen and they’re ‘therapeutic’ but it’s A BIG ASS LIEEEE. They only want you to think and act the way you tell them to. I could only escape by faking and not being myself for an entire year. Whatever the solution is to 'help' (that word sounds so condescending doesn't it?) teenagers who are socially outcasts that SURE AS HELL isn’t it. I wasn’t the one that needed to ‘change’ anyway, people that enjoyed bullying me needed to change. *sigh*
I just find it so ironic that a place that evil is trying to say how good and responsible it is. It seriously makes me sick to my stomach.
The biggest evil bitch there was this woman named Renee Hunt. (real name to NOT protect the guilty) She would try to accuse me of being a sex offender and made up all this horrible shit about me. She turned everybody against me when I was well-liked. She was a total heartless monster, and I hope she gets ran over by a truck. (that would be hella funny) I mean to seriously destroy somebody’s reputation like that. That wasn’t right… what a nasty shrew!
You couldn’t talk about your real religious beliefs. You had to be a Christian and nothing else. They were sooo close-minded. They also believed in those chick tracts. They thought that shit was real, I kid you not! It was hilarious sometimes. They thought masturbation was wrong and evil.
“Sam, why don’t you tell us what the REAL ISSUE WAS.”
“Um nothing, I just didn’t want to go because I didn’t want to go?”
“THAT’S NOT TRUE AND YOU KNOW IT. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU GOT SEXUALLY ABUSED BY YOUR FATHER. WHO ARE YOU TRYING TO ‘GROOOM?” (Ms. Cunt’s favorite word!)
Me: “Uhh…”
NO MATTER WHAT I SAID THEY MENTIONED SEXUAL ABUSE. IT WAS HILARIOUS. Like that one Southpark episode kinda.
Finally, in order to leave I had to lie about a bunch a shit and say I was sexually abused and that I did stuff to little boys. And everybody else said ‘good job Sam’ for me telling an OUTRIGHT LIE. Trying to explain that I wasn’t a sexual victim or offender was POINTLESS as they would say you’re in ‘denial’ or some shit like that. Man, it was CRAZY! But I HAD TO DO THAT or I might not even have my freedom to this day.
Renee was so funny. One time she was all ‘DID I TELL YOU THAT STEVE (name changed for protection) WAS MASTURBATING TO ME WHEN I FIRST CAME?’ like 6 months after she met the guy. And I’m like ‘YOU BITCH. IF HE WAS DOING THAT, WHY DIDN’T YOU MENTION IT WHEN IT WAS HAPPENING? AND I THINK WE WOULD SEE SOMEBODY WANKING OFF TO YOUR UGLY FACE ANYWAY.’ Of course I couldn’t say that. Anytime I tried to stand up for myself and talk back to Renee she would try to threaten me with plans of ‘escalation.’ I almost hit her once but I’m so glad now that I didn’t! Even though she deserved it.
Staff would also lie and say you were masturbating WHEN YOU WEREN’T. I kid you not!!! As for the gay thing, they were naturally horny teenage boys, some were straight some were gay but of course they were going to experiment. What did they expect? No access to females at all….it was like prison really, so situational homosexuality was to be expected. I never had sex with anybody since they watched us so close but we would sometimes hold each other’s hands when nobody was looking…we were just starved for affection but they weren’t allowed to hug us or anything. (well some of them did it wasn’t ALL bad I think some people were just tricked into believing it was a nice place….so I did receive some nice hugs from staff members that made me feel like I was still human….)
I’m just glad that I’m alive today and that I was too intelligent to be brainwashed and that luckily I’m a big guy so nobody tried to mess with me physically. I thought about escaping but there was just too many people and I’m not a very physical person so I don’t know if I would outrun them. They were just messed up in the head really. I might have more stories that I’ll share later but yeah it was basically being wrongly accused of one horrible thing after the other.
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TO barelysurvivedit: I'm confused, so it sounds like you lived in a nightmare and both your daughter and your family were grave danger. Over those 15 months was she abusing you and her siblings, was she associating with drug dealer, was she using drugs. IS SHE FUCKING ALIVE TODAY? You are one of those typical "the glass is half empty" parent that BLAMES everyone for your daughters mistakes and your failures to be parents. Maybe that's the reason she spent 30 months between 2 programs. Sad, very very sad!
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TO barelysurvivedit: I'm confused, so it sounds like you lived in a nightmare and both your daughter and your family were grave danger. Over those 15 months was she abusing you and her siblings, was she associating with drug dealer, was she using drugs. IS SHE FUCKING ALIVE TODAY? You are one of those typical "the glass is half empty" parent that BLAMES everyone for your daughters mistakes and your failures to be parents. Maybe that's the reason she spent 30 months between 2 programs. Sad, very very sad!
isnt this meant to be the forum where people just either ask and answer questions or post factual posts like blombowski did? why is this stuff in this forum? Psy? Ursus?
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Whoops. Sorry bout that. Forgot which forum this thread is in.
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Where did my post go?
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Where did my post go?
"Facility Questions and Answers" is moderated. Personal attacks, regardless of who they are aimed at, are not permitted. If you want to blast somebody, you have the rest of the forum to do it in. I don't particularly like moderating, but it's how this portion of the forum was set up, so it's what I have to do. Sorry, but those are the rules.
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To the parent, what state do you live in? I want to withhold judgment, but why do I get the sense you live in neither Utah or Ohio. The first placement is an understandable mistake. But two separate placements in two RTC's thousands of miles away from each other, huh? I pray for your sake and your daughter's sake that you live in Ohio or at least in a neighboring state. I won't say that makes the decision to use Starr Commonwealth a good decision, just something that makes more sense.
Otherwise you really do sound like a parent who had an extremely difficult child, and you didn't want to be a parent to that child anymore, and found places far enough away from home that it wasn't reasonable for you to visit.
You know I get the place you are coming from is saying this but a lot of ed cons actively encourage the idea that parents who specifically look close to home are being limited and making an error. Struggling teens itself list such a thing as a parental mistake. I dont know this woman or her kid or even you so it is hard to judge, but this is something parents are told repeatedly. It does not necessarily mean they want to get rid of them though for some it would be a handy side effect
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Soooo..back to Unita. It's interesting that a parent thought that the director was not personally involved. He was involved with the horses etc, which leaves the big question, who is running the place? The therapists do their own things and can sorta be trusted, like they have all these ethical rules and c*** but what about the staff? Sounds like we really were subject to someone who was an administrator and who wanted things to be calm and chill but maybe not so interested in ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING for the residents even tho it was DIFFICULT.
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I am wondering if any parents ever felt like there wasn't enough communication between the Uinta staff and themselves? We have felt on numerous occasions that if we asked questions they thought we were nuts for wanting answers. Just uneasy feelings all the time.
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That's a sign to pull kid out, a big red flag, those places are horrible, keep your kids free from any of those places, every last one could be your last moment with child. :peace:
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I had a daughter there for less than a year. Was under the impression that progress was being made altho she obviously still had some problems. Was getting non-controversial reports from therapist--problems pointed out but still seemed positive, never asked for additional meetings by phone with us, never suggested ramping up her meds, never suggested Uinta was having problems, etc. In fact, therapist didn't meet with her for a couple of weeks due to illness, weather/road problems, a seminar, and didn't have another therapist or the head guy, Jeff, work with her individually. Have a telephone conference call one day for what we thought was going to be a "next after Uinta" discussion since age 18 was fast approaching and, guess what? They think she needs to be moved out of the program immediately because they are "only managing her" and they believe her psychosis is deepening even tho THEY NEVER CONSULTED THE PSYCHIATRIST about her, her meds, etc. during this supposedly worsening time. And, as noted, had failed not only to bump up individual therapy but had not even given her the weekly individual therapy she was supposed to have. Then, of course, the subsequent couple of weekly reports were very negative from her therapist. The EdCon was speechless. So I would have to agree with Mom that things were not as represented and if you are considering enrolling your kid because you think you will get more complete info, don't bet on it.
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Our daughter is currently at Uinta. We have nothing but good things to say about the program and the results. We expect her to leave after 12 months. She now has a understanding how her dangerous behavior affected herself and those around her. We went from being hopeless after making the very difficult decision to send her to a wilderness program to hopeful as we drove her directly to Uinta. They understand how to reach these girls. Our daughter has embraced the target skills and comes to each therapy session with thoughtful analysis. We got lucky w/ a therapist she really resonates with and, for the first time since grade school, she enjoys herself. Please let me know if you have any specific questions I can answer. I will say, with any type of program, it is important you advocate for yourself and your child.
I hope the people on this blog who want to get into 'bad parent' bashing never have to experience what we have with our daughter. You can't judge. You don't know what kind of parents we were, what we tried to do to guide our daughter through the difficulty of middle/high school, and all the things we tried to get her help.
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Last post was Unita staff.
You're not fooling anyone, seriously.
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Not sure how to convince you...or why I need to. Hopefully my message will resonate with other parents out there. I don't know why you are cynical. I think my previous message accurately represented our family's experience so far with the program. It has been a difficult road for us and our daughter. We, fortunately, are all on the same path now and are optimistic about our family's future.
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Our daughter has embraced the target skills and comes to each therapy session with thoughtful analysis.
Ok, specific questions: just exactly what are the "target skills" your daughter is embracing? In what way have they helped her? Do you participate in the therapy or are you being told that she is coming to "each therapy session with thoughtful analysis"? How exactly do you know this an finally while your daughter is there are you or the family in therapy to examine issues relating to the situation that caused her to be placed?
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In each phase of the program she works w/ her therapist (and us) to define her target skills. She just changed to three new ones i.e. showing empathy for others. We talk to her socially a few times a week for 15 minutes. We talk to her therapist alone and then include her for 60 minutes a week. We get a written academic progress report monthly. It is a self paced on-line program through BYU. We have visited her in Utah and she had her first home visit. We see the progress then and she discusses it each week in therapy. The preparation she brings to therapy is examples of what happened to her during the week and how she felt/handled it/or what it meant to her. The topics in therapy center on the reasons for her 'downfall' as well as how she will cope after she graduates. Not sure I understand your last sentence/question. Maybe you were in the middle of an edit when you hit sent.
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We get a written academic progress report monthly. It is a self paced on-line program through BYU. [/quote]
So she does her schooling on line through a Mormon university? Is the program itself run by Mormons and if so does it square with your family and daughter's beliefs?The topics in therapy center on the reasons for her 'downfall' as well as how she will cope after she graduates. Not sure I understand your last sentence/question. Maybe you were in the middle of an edit when you hit sent.
Let me ask it better. The reason for placing your daughter in a program has to do with her behavior. There are many things that have influenced that behavior, a great many of which center around family dynamics and relationships. You did say that for the first time since grade school she is happy so from grade school until the time she was put in a program there was something serious going on; she did not grow up in a vacuum. So the question then is this: apart from whatever therapy the program offers ( which I assume is by phone) are you and her family in therapy in the town where you live to gain insight into the family's role in the situation and how dynamics need to change to insure a successful transition? Thanks
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Yes, it is recommended the family continue w/ therapy at home. We also receive in-person therapy when we visit at Uinta. We got a recommendation from our daughter's therapist what we needed to do to compliment what she was doing at Uinta. Each family (as we learned from the Family Weekend in October) has very different dynamics that can contribute to their child's issues. We feel like Uinta worked w/ us to determine changes we need to make at home that will help. We were lucky and they were minimal (and controllable). Also, she was in multiple forms of therapy since the beginning of 7th grade. Maybe that is why you thought I sounded like a Uinta staff person...I feel fairly (and sadly) experienced in the whole troubled teen therapy scene.
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How long has your daughter been there?
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She has been there since the spring and will probably move to the last level next month.
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Sorry, forgot to address the question of Mormon (BYU) on-line classes and overall religion. We assume many of the staff are Mormon. It never comes up...we are not Mormon.
The on-line courses are certainly not religious in nature. We would have heard about it from our daughter. I know students all over the country who have taken on-line BYU courses as part of their high school education. Sure, we'd rather have her in a 'real' high school but our attitude is the education is secondary to the therapy and overall healing. She is going to graduate at Uinta and would like to attend college. She feels good about her academic achievements too.
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Actually, this sounds exactly like us. Our phone therapy sessions showed real progress, our on site visits at Uinta were great. We had our funny, connected daughter back who wanted to hang around with us, who listened and didn't blow up or throw things, a person whom we could listen to. Our home visit was great our daughter seemed to be interested in things and people. She was helpful without being a suck-up. Even when she came home after being asked to leave(We never told her the real story, we just stated that we and Uinta thought she was ready to leave and get ready for the next phase of her life. We didn't want her to add another failure and ego destroyer to her life), she was great for several months. People were amazed.Then things regressed. Behavior at school deteriorated, defiance came back, destructive behavior to herself and others returned, etc. So, does it work? Not in her case. I wish we had saved our money and put it into a trust fund for her support because at this point I doubt that she will ever be able to hold a job for any length of time.
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ToniB:
Because she is female she will change her ways when she is 18-20 years old, sometime delayed if she has missed the rite of passage doing the wrong things while being a teenager. It is statistically proven by our department of corrections which house the convicted teenagers having done more serious things like armed assault etc. which demands more than just sending them to Continuation schools (http://http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Category:Continuation_schools_in_Denmark).
Boys are slower to get it. They often remain troubled to about age 25 - 29. We have a lot who have served jailtime etc. who suddenly turn into contributing citizens around this age.
Of course some never get it but they are few and most are discovered to have a hidden illness or handicap which have not been discovered. Those who are immigrants can be paid 20,000 dollars (100,000 DKK) to leave Denmark permanent starting January 1, 2010. However it is voluntary.
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Those who are immigrants can be paid 20,000 dollars (100,000 DKK) to leave Denmark permanent starting January 1, 2010. However it is voluntary.
Seriously? So, if I immigrate to Denmark and then behave badly enough to be asked to leave, I can pick up a pay cheque on my way out?
Your countrymen are an incredibly mannered people.
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i was a student at uinta in 2003 to 2004 i would love to know where some of you get your "facts" the staff there have been nothing but respectful, jeff had individual attention with all of us as a matter of fact he keeps up with you if you make the effort to, my son is named after him that's how big of a difference he made in my life, Jeff, Becky and the staff changed my life from dangerous and self destructive to helping me become a productive member of society. The staff would encourage you to be the best you could be but on a very relatable side, they were able to use ti have many wonderful memories of Uinta and the horses and girls. i graduated in 2004 before the transition program or east and west campus was started but i go back for yearly visits to catch up with Jeff and becky and see how the program has changed, although it has grown there is no difference in how jeff and becky give each girl individual attention and show respect for everyone in the house. they look out for your best interest. My parents live in PA and i know it was hard for them to send me so far away but in the end it made a world of difference knowing they couldn't just drive up and buy into my manipulation of trying to come home, as yes you do get homesick and frequently think man if i could just go home and relax,but you work threw it and in the end it helps to just deal and learn that you can't manipulate every situation
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Good to hear it was positive for you
I was wondering as well as being able to call family did you get to call any school friends or wider relatives?
If you could call friends etc did staff listen to the calls or were you free to make them unmonitored?
Could you write to anyone you wanted or email them?
How often did the average student get to go off campus on an outing?
Were you ever allowed to go for a walk around the neighbourhood during freetime?
Were any academic credits transferable to a regular public school?
Were there any opportunities to play sports against other girls schools or do co curricular activities like chess or play an instrument?
Were there any group therapy sessions? If so was there the option to not share on any particular day?
Were you able to view your therapists notes?
If medication was involved did you get any input into its use or did they just make you take it?
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Wow, there's so many things I have to say about Uinta. Good and Bad.
First I'll start by saying I'm 22 years old, I live in Marin County CA and I have been to 5 different programs. I got sent away at 13 and came home 3 months before I turned 18.
Sagewalk, a wilderness program in OR,
New Haven an all girls RTC in UT, similar to Uinta but has been around MUCH longer :tup:
Nawa Academy, a Co-ed boarding school for non-traditional learners located in Northern CA, THEY ARE AMAZING CHECK THEM OUT!!! (no seriously, check them out, http://http://nawaacademy.org/) :tup: :tup: :tup: :tup: :nods:
Uinta Academy, I was there 14 months.
and Coronado Academy, a co-ed therapudic boarding school in Costa Rica, which shut down in 2004, they were wonderful too!.
But back to Uinta. Like I said I really liked it at first. Very small program, expanding was a given from the beginning. Uinta is still a buisness and expanding your buissness= more $$$$ . I did learn alot there so don't get me wrong. Apparently I have amazing people skills now,(I don't see it, but that's another story) I can accept "no" and accept feedback and work on the problem.
The "skills" I got out of the program are amazing, I couldn't have thanked Jeff and Becky more, but some of the stuff I experienced there... all I can say is "Wow! Really?!" For Example: We got in trouble for buying HEINZ Ketchup[/u] because John Kerry owned the ketchup plant, we were banned from Heinz from that point on, HUNTS ONLY! I think if I remember clearly we "lost points" & privledges. I'm sorry but just because you're a Republican does not mean you have to throw a fit about the ketchup!! ketchup is ketchup!! :fuckoff:
We were having the horses' hooves trimmed and 'my' horse was a bit nervous, (we had gotten her from an auction in Idaho I doubt anyone had put any real training into her) she started shifting around a bit and was obviously stressed and when it came time to trim one of her front hooves and she was still moving, Jeff kicked her SO hard in the gut that I felt like I could feel it in my stomach! Horses are big animals and you have to be a bit more rough with them then say a dog or a cat, but I've also been working with horses since I was about 6 and I have NEVER EVER seen someone treat a horse like I had seen that day. ::deadhorse::
We ate nothing but crap food there :spam: , I gained 60 lbs at Uinta, and when I saw a doctor when I left Uinta they said I had pre-diabetes.... uhhh??? I started there at maybe 160lbs. I know I wasn't tiny, I'll be the first to admit that. At Nawa (the program I told you about above), I did all kinds of stuff like rock climbing, swift water rescue, cross country, hiking, you name a physical activity, we did it there, so I may have been kind of "big" going into Uinta but I wasn't a damn blimp! When I got out, I was 220lbs! Barely 17 years old and 220lbs?!?! AND A PREDIABETIC?!?! In 14 months?!?! WOW! ::OMG:: oh and I know it was supposted to be a little "fun joke" at the time, but Jeff gave me the nickname "Garbage disposal", so if one of the other girls couldn't finish her meal, "well hand it over to Garbage disposal! she'll finish it for you" Now that I think about it, that's really horrible but oh so true. :waaaa:
All the experiences I shared with you were all stupid right?? So if we're there to learn "values" or "get better" with our self esteem issues, body issues, anger problems etc., should we really be called mean nicknames, punnished for our political views, watch frustrated adults get mad at horses when they should clearly be joining us in our anger managment sessions, and making us in to future diabetic research polls that you see on the evening news.??? No. So I don't know how it is there now adays but just know that some of their thinking there is kind of.... what's the term Jeff used... oh, "irrational".
In any case, Uinta along with EVERY OTHER PROGRAM is going to be good for some people and bad or useless for others. It's always going to be hit and miss. Your daughter has to want to change. Most of the girls I was there with would tell the staff and therapists exactly what they wanted to hear but once those girls got home, they were back out there doing coke and getting knocked up at 18 years old :dose: (I still talk to 90% of the kids I met in my programs that's how I know this info). I didn't love Uinta enough to name my first child after one of the program directors, infact, that's just creepy and kind of gross(no offense) but I didn't hate Uinta, It did many things I may not have done otherwise.
UINTA NOR ANY OTHER PROGRAM IS GOING TO "CURE" YOUR DAUGHTER, SO IF THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR, YOUR EXPECTATIONS ARE TOO HIGH.
On a 10 star rating 10 being the highest, I would give Uinta a 6. Not good and not bad. Good luck parents :shamrock: . I hope you find what you're looking for.
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Thanks for posting Joester. Im sorry that they were such asses to you. Any professional or even decent human being I think would agree that it is not professional, helpful or kind to call anyone names or make personal remarks nor is it OK to hurt defenceless animals. So your complaints are not stupid at all. I was wondering if you would mind filling us in on the specifics of the program.
Was mail monitored? Under what circumstances?
Under what circumstances could you use the phone?
was there a level system. Was it similar to other programs that you attended?
What about schooling?
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I was wondering if you would mind filling us in on the specifics of the program.
Was mail monitored? Under what circumstances?
Under what circumstances could you use the phone?
was there a level system. Was it similar to other programs that you attended?
What about schooling?
When I was there, mail was monitored, but only to a point. Letters & packages had to be opened in front of the staff member that is passing out the mail. If a girl got a package the staff would have to make sure that the content being recieved was check thoroughly. I got to use the phone, but to be completly honest with you I don't remember how often. I do remember that I was only allowed to call certain people and I remember wanting to call my mom more then I was allowed to. There was a level system and it was pretty easy to get from one level to the next if you are truley motivated. Uinta was very similar to my other RTC in Utah called New Haven School. Infact I went to New Haven before Uinta and suggested that our nightly group meetings be called "Community" just like at New Haven. If they still call it that, I don't know. However when I first got to Uinta I was not drug tested or put on a manditory "saftey" level. (http://http://www.newhavenrtc.com/treatment-levelsystem.php)
As far as the schooling goes. I actually liked the BYU independent study program. I don't know why. I just really enjoyed it.
Hope that helped a bit.
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Thanks Joelene. It is always helpful when someone shares what they know. Can i ask a few more questions?
Were you given access to your therapists notes if you wanted?
If there was group therapy were you able to opt out of sharing if you wanted to?
What about medication? Did you get any input?
You mention new haven. Were any of the staff ex New Haven staff?
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Bear with me on this one, this is going to be a long one. My reasons for posting this are varied. Probably the biggest one is that I hope this might be an avenue to let other parents out there know about our experience with Uinta Academy of Wellsville, Utah.
As a background our youngest has suffered from extreme panic/anxiety disorder for 5+ years. After exhausting every available option, we made the difficult decision to place her at Uinta. The center was recommended to us by an educational consultant. We did not insurance to cover any of it. While we had some positive outcome from her time at Uinta, we also endured a lot of frustration and heartbreak at how we were treated by staff. Bottom line, L.’s therapist, looking for a reason for L.’s issues, decided that I must have anger management issues and therefore was the reason for L.’s disorder. I should disclose that L., in an attempt to be able to come home, fabricated to her therapist that she needed to leave treatment so that I could get treatment for anger issues. L. later told her therapist that she had made it all up in a mis-guided attempt to make us pull her out of treatment. It was too late, the ink had been set. Sue’s (Sue Hoffman–L.’s primary therapist at Uinta) mind was made up, ‘bad kid-bad mom’. I should say that I am like most moms, I advocate for my children. And, when I feel that someone is trying to prevent me from seeing/having contact with my child, I am going to question it and be tenacious in my quest to protect my child. Our perception was that this was interpreted as a bad thing by Sue and the staff at Uinta–they felt we were too controlling. I should also say that during the almost 9 months L. was in Utah, we were granted permission to see her 3 times, she was 12 years old! Incidentally, after she came home from Uinta, she has received a diagnosis of Panic/Anxiety Disorder--Separation Anxiety, meaning that she never went thru separation anxiety as a toddler, therefore it came on at a later time and was that much more severe....Uinta's approach to cut off almost all contact with our daughter, was the worst thing for her. Live and learn.
A difficult part for me has been that someone who didn’t know me (nor took anytime to get to know who I was) decided who they thought I was and it was a very ugly depiction. In an ‘exit interview’ with one of our local providers, Sue even went so far as to tell him that she felt I was a ‘potential barrier to L.’s treatment’ and that I appeared to have issues that needed to be investigated. I was devastated. I’m still trying to get over that one.
After L. came home, we felt we needed to send a letter to Jeff Simpson. Jeff and his wife Becky, established Uinta. The following is excerpts from that letter which described some of our experience with Uinta. While we know that he received the letter, we never received a response from Jeff, Becky, or Sue. Here goes....
Dear Jeff:
We wanted to thank you and Becky for establishing Uinta and offering a spot for L. to be there. In all of our interactions with you, we have always walked away feeling your desire to help make a real difference in the lives of the girls that find their way to Uinta . It’s very apparent that it isn’t just a job for you, it’s a passion. L., and our family have benefitted greatly from her time at Uinta.
...
Other factors for bringing L. home, were our increasing unease with what we felt was lack of access to L. as well as our perceived direction of where L.’s treatment might be going. We understand that our perceptions might be mis-perceptions, but they were our perceptions that we simply could not ‘shake’. Finally, we could not ignore our parental instinct and we made the difficult decision to bring her home.
For the last several weeks we have struggled with whether to voice our concerns to you, and we finally decided to share with you some things that we experienced while L. was at Uinta. To preface all of this, we want to state that we feel Sue worked extremely well with L. and so we repeatedly tried to set our own misgivings and concerns aside in the interest of our daughter’s treatment.
From the very beginning, we had an undefined uneasiness about our interactions with Sue. We felt like she was constantly trying to ‘put us in our place’ and establish that she was in control of our daughter and that she didn’t really need or want our input. Again, we will readily admit that this is our perception and that it might be a mis-perception, but we are relaying how we felt, not just once, but repeatedly. Reasons why we felt this way? The examples are varied. One simple one was Sue not turning her cell phone off (or even turning it to vibrate) during our family therapy sessions. We often felt that she was distracted by her cell phone, checking e-mail, etc. during our family therapy sessions. We want to be clear that this was not just once, it went off almost every session. One session we could even tell that she was texting during our session. Incidentally this was a very important session where we were telling L. she was coming home–L. when hearing the news, stated ‘oh you all think I’m good enough to go home?’ Because Sue was busy texting someone else, she made no response to this statement. We ended up explaining to L. that we felt she had worked very hard and that she would need to continue treatment when she was at home. Sue never responded to this, and as her therapist, we certainly could have used her direction and at least assistance in this conversation with L.. In our years of working with therapists, we had never experienced this and we felt that it showed a lack of respect to our limited family therapy time. Again, please understand that we are not completely dense and selfish to not realize that there are emergencies that may come up from time to time. However, we also know that Uinta has a wonderfully trained staff of family teachers that are always available. We were just frustrated at our perceived lack of her respect to L. and our family therapy time by the fact that her cell phone was not silenced during our sessions. After bringing L. home, she told us that it bothered her that Sue would take phone calls from her daughter during their sessions, or that she would check e-mail, etc., during their therapy time. We wonder how it would have been perceived if we had our cell phones going off and were texting others during our family therapy sessions. My guess is that Sue would not have looked on it too favorably and that she might have felt we weren’t fully engaged in our family therapy.
Another ongoing issue was trying to schedule visits with L.. One of our main concerns when we made the decision to send L. to Uinta was whether or not we would be able to have regular visits with L.. Looking back at our notes of our initial phone conversation with you and Becky, we noted that you said we would be able to see her approximately every 6-7 weeks. We always understood that any of these visits were subject to last minute cancellation if L. had not earned the privilege. Our frustration was getting even the ok to plan a visit.
We don’t know how it works with other parents and therapists, but we (perhaps wrongly) expected that after 1 visit was complete, the therapist would say, ok that visit went well, next visit could be <date>, why don’t you plan for that, and we will decide the week of if your daughter has earned it. That never happened. Without going into the he said/she said scenarios of how each visit was scheduled, suffice it to say that we were always left feeling like we had no say in when we could and could not see our daughter. Better communication on this issue would have greatly relieved a lot of our family’s stress. Instead, we often used valuable family therapy time discussing logistics of visits. If a clearer level of written communication had existed in this area, we could have better used that time with L. on actual therapy issues.
That brings us to another nagging concern that we could never shake. E-mail communication, and our perception (or again readily admitted possible mis-perception) that Sue never completely read our e-mails. Please understand that we tried to keep e-mail to a minimum. We understood Sue’s time constraints, and we didn’t want to be parents that filled the in-box. However, from the beginning we were told (at parent weekend) that e-mail was the best way to communicate–if we had questions or concerns we should send an e-mail. For example as to why we felt they weren’t fully read, when we would send an e-mail with 3 questions, we might receive an answer back to 1 of them. We would re-send and this would go back and forth. We also had it more than once that we would send something, have no response, and then the following week in family therapy we would bring the concern up and to us it always felt like she hadn’t read it, or at the most skimmed it and put it aside. Sometimes it wasn’t questions, it might have been input and observations that we felt important to L.’s ongoing therapy–we don’t think these type of e-mails ever received a response, or even a one line acknowledgment to the extent of ‘thanks for the information’. Sometimes we wondered if she had even received our e-mail (maybe a simple setting on the e-mail system that sends out auto receipt acknowledgments??)
When L. hit her 6 month mark we sent a detailed e-mail asking if it was possible to have a phone conference with the entire treatment team and we listed the things we wanted to discuss. We also listed several things that we would like input from the academic team on. The following week when we finally discussed the e-mail, it came across to us repeatedly during our conversation that it was very possible Sue had not fully read the e-mail. For instance, she asked us what information we wanted from the academic team–this had been detailed in the e-mail. At one point she said to us, it sounds like maybe it would be a good idea to have a phone conference with the treatment team, would you be ok with doing that? To this we responded yes, we would be in to that, that is why we asked for it in our original e-mail. It was during this conversation that we were told our level of reaction to receiving no response from her was excessive. Sue told us she was very busy working with girls and that she often didn’t have time to respond to parents, and finally that we needed to understand that Uinta was better at communication than other facilities so we should be glad that there was the level of communication that there was. More than once we expressed to Sue that at times we felt like we had no idea what was going on with L. and her treatment. Sue always defensively responded ‘that’s not true, you know what is going on with her’, invalidating our feelings.
When Sue told us she often didn’t have time to respond to parents and that essentially that is just how it was, we were disheartened and walked away with the perception (again our possible mis-perception) that Sue did not really need or want us involved in L.’s treatment. This was very concerning to us. We did not want L. to perceive that we didn’t want to be involved in her treatment, or that we had asked to have limited contact with her. We realize that some might view this as a control issue, we view it as wanting to be involved in our 12 year old’s life and treatment and our desire to continue to build a healthy relationship with her as she grows up. Finally, it was sad when Jane went to bring L. home and Sue had nothing to say, not even good-bye. Jane had told her and Kristi ahead of time when she would be arriving. When Jane arrived, no one was available (which is understandable–it was the middle of the day). When Sue later arrived at the house, she walked into the room, made one statement, handed Jane L.’s transcript and walked away. They never saw her again. The discharge summary that we had asked be prepared and ready to go wasn’t ready, nor did Sue explain when it would be ready or even acknowledge that it wasn’t ready to go with L.. Before she and L. left, Jane ended up asking Kristi when it would be ready. We received it a few days later, luckily in time before our first scheduled appointment with L.’s local treatment providers.
We don’t know how you will interpret or take this letter. We hope that you will see it for what it is intended to be, a relaying of parents’ observations and concerns and how maybe things can be improved for others. It is not intended as criticism. Again, we appreciate all that was done for L. while at Uinta. After several years of therapy, L. had given up and nothing we could do would get her to engage in therapy and trying again. Now, she knows that she can feel good and is willing to work at it. That is a blessing.
Thank you again,
-
Bear with me on this one, this is going to be a long one. My reasons for posting this are varied. Probably the biggest one is that I hope this might be an avenue to let other parents out there know about our experience with Uinta Academy of Wellsville, Utah.
As a background our youngest has suffered from extreme panic/anxiety disorder for 5+ years. After exhausting every available option, we made the difficult decision to place her at Uinta. The center was recommended to us by an educational consultant. We did not insurance to cover any of it. While we had some positive outcome from her time at Uinta, we also endured a lot of frustration and heartbreak at how we were treated by staff. Bottom line, L.’s therapist, looking for a reason for L.’s issues, decided that I must have anger management issues and therefore was the reason for L.’s disorder. I should disclose that L., in an attempt to be able to come home, fabricated to her therapist that she needed to leave treatment so that I could get treatment for anger issues. L. later told her therapist that she had made it all up in a mis-guided attempt to make us pull her out of treatment. It was too late, the ink had been set. Sue’s (Sue Hoffman–L.’s primary therapist at Uinta) mind was made up, ‘bad kid-bad mom’. I should say that I am like most moms, I advocate for my children. And, when I feel that someone is trying to prevent me from seeing/having contact with my child, I am going to question it and be tenacious in my quest to protect my child. Our perception was that this was interpreted as a bad thing by Sue and the staff at Uinta–they felt we were too controlling. I should also say that during the almost 9 months L. was in Utah, we were granted permission to see her 3 times, she was 12 years old! Incidentally, after she came home from Uinta, she has received a diagnosis of Panic/Anxiety Disorder--Separation Anxiety, meaning that she never went thru separation anxiety as a toddler, therefore it came on at a later time and was that much more severe....Uinta's approach to cut off almost all contact with our daughter, was the worst thing for her. Live and learn.
A difficult part for me has been that someone who didn’t know me (nor took anytime to get to know who I was) decided who they thought I was and it was a very ugly depiction. In an ‘exit interview’ with one of our local providers, Sue even went so far as to tell him that she felt I was a ‘potential barrier to L.’s treatment’ and that I appeared to have issues that needed to be investigated. I was devastated. I’m still trying to get over that one.
After L. came home, we felt we needed to send a letter to Jeff Simpson. Jeff and his wife Becky, established Uinta. The following is excerpts from that letter which described some of our experience with Uinta. While we know that he received the letter, we never received a response from Jeff, Becky, or Sue. Here goes....
Dear Jeff:
We wanted to thank you and Becky for establishing Uinta and offering a spot for L. to be there. In all of our interactions with you, we have always walked away feeling your desire to help make a real difference in the lives of the girls that find their way to Uinta . It’s very apparent that it isn’t just a job for you, it’s a passion. L., and our family have benefitted greatly from her time at Uinta.
...
Other factors for bringing L. home, were our increasing unease with what we felt was lack of access to L. as well as our perceived direction of where L.’s treatment might be going. We understand that our perceptions might be mis-perceptions, but they were our perceptions that we simply could not ‘shake’. Finally, we could not ignore our parental instinct and we made the difficult decision to bring her home.
For the last several weeks we have struggled with whether to voice our concerns to you, and we finally decided to share with you some things that we experienced while L. was at Uinta. To preface all of this, we want to state that we feel Sue worked extremely well with L. and so we repeatedly tried to set our own misgivings and concerns aside in the interest of our daughter’s treatment.
From the very beginning, we had an undefined uneasiness about our interactions with Sue. We felt like she was constantly trying to ‘put us in our place’ and establish that she was in control of our daughter and that she didn’t really need or want our input. Again, we will readily admit that this is our perception and that it might be a mis-perception, but we are relaying how we felt, not just once, but repeatedly. Reasons why we felt this way? The examples are varied. One simple one was Sue not turning her cell phone off (or even turning it to vibrate) during our family therapy sessions. We often felt that she was distracted by her cell phone, checking e-mail, etc. during our family therapy sessions. We want to be clear that this was not just once, it went off almost every session. One session we could even tell that she was texting during our session. Incidentally this was a very important session where we were telling L. she was coming home–L. when hearing the news, stated ‘oh you all think I’m good enough to go home?’ Because Sue was busy texting someone else, she made no response to this statement. We ended up explaining to L. that we felt she had worked very hard and that she would need to continue treatment when she was at home. Sue never responded to this, and as her therapist, we certainly could have used her direction and at least assistance in this conversation with L.. In our years of working with therapists, we had never experienced this and we felt that it showed a lack of respect to our limited family therapy time. Again, please understand that we are not completely dense and selfish to not realize that there are emergencies that may come up from time to time. However, we also know that Uinta has a wonderfully trained staff of family teachers that are always available. We were just frustrated at our perceived lack of her respect to L. and our family therapy time by the fact that her cell phone was not silenced during our sessions. After bringing L. home, she told us that it bothered her that Sue would take phone calls from her daughter during their sessions, or that she would check e-mail, etc., during their therapy time. We wonder how it would have been perceived if we had our cell phones going off and were texting others during our family therapy sessions. My guess is that Sue would not have looked on it too favorably and that she might have felt we weren’t fully engaged in our family therapy.
Another ongoing issue was trying to schedule visits with L.. One of our main concerns when we made the decision to send L. to Uinta was whether or not we would be able to have regular visits with L.. Looking back at our notes of our initial phone conversation with you and Becky, we noted that you said we would be able to see her approximately every 6-7 weeks. We always understood that any of these visits were subject to last minute cancellation if L. had not earned the privilege. Our frustration was getting even the ok to plan a visit.
We don’t know how it works with other parents and therapists, but we (perhaps wrongly) expected that after 1 visit was complete, the therapist would say, ok that visit went well, next visit could be <date>, why don’t you plan for that, and we will decide the week of if your daughter has earned it. That never happened. Without going into the he said/she said scenarios of how each visit was scheduled, suffice it to say that we were always left feeling like we had no say in when we could and could not see our daughter. Better communication on this issue would have greatly relieved a lot of our family’s stress. Instead, we often used valuable family therapy time discussing logistics of visits. If a clearer level of written communication had existed in this area, we could have better used that time with L. on actual therapy issues.
That brings us to another nagging concern that we could never shake. E-mail communication, and our perception (or again readily admitted possible mis-perception) that Sue never completely read our e-mails. Please understand that we tried to keep e-mail to a minimum. We understood Sue’s time constraints, and we didn’t want to be parents that filled the in-box. However, from the beginning we were told (at parent weekend) that e-mail was the best way to communicate–if we had questions or concerns we should send an e-mail. For example as to why we felt they weren’t fully read, when we would send an e-mail with 3 questions, we might receive an answer back to 1 of them. We would re-send and this would go back and forth. We also had it more than once that we would send something, have no response, and then the following week in family therapy we would bring the concern up and to us it always felt like she hadn’t read it, or at the most skimmed it and put it aside. Sometimes it wasn’t questions, it might have been input and observations that we felt important to L.’s ongoing therapy–we don’t think these type of e-mails ever received a response, or even a one line acknowledgment to the extent of ‘thanks for the information’. Sometimes we wondered if she had even received our e-mail (maybe a simple setting on the e-mail system that sends out auto receipt acknowledgments??)
When L. hit her 6 month mark we sent a detailed e-mail asking if it was possible to have a phone conference with the entire treatment team and we listed the things we wanted to discuss. We also listed several things that we would like input from the academic team on. The following week when we finally discussed the e-mail, it came across to us repeatedly during our conversation that it was very possible Sue had not fully read the e-mail. For instance, she asked us what information we wanted from the academic team–this had been detailed in the e-mail. At one point she said to us, it sounds like maybe it would be a good idea to have a phone conference with the treatment team, would you be ok with doing that? To this we responded yes, we would be in to that, that is why we asked for it in our original e-mail. It was during this conversation that we were told our level of reaction to receiving no response from her was excessive. Sue told us she was very busy working with girls and that she often didn’t have time to respond to parents, and finally that we needed to understand that Uinta was better at communication than other facilities so we should be glad that there was the level of communication that there was. More than once we expressed to Sue that at times we felt like we had no idea what was going on with L. and her treatment. Sue always defensively responded ‘that’s not true, you know what is going on with her’, invalidating our feelings.
When Sue told us she often didn’t have time to respond to parents and that essentially that is just how it was, we were disheartened and walked away with the perception (again our possible mis-perception) that Sue did not really need or want us involved in L.’s treatment. This was very concerning to us. We did not want L. to perceive that we didn’t want to be involved in her treatment, or that we had asked to have limited contact with her. We realize that some might view this as a control issue, we view it as wanting to be involved in our 12 year old’s life and treatment and our desire to continue to build a healthy relationship with her as she grows up. Finally, it was sad when Jane went to bring L. home and Sue had nothing to say, not even good-bye. Jane had told her and Kristi ahead of time when she would be arriving. When Jane arrived, no one was available (which is understandable–it was the middle of the day). When Sue later arrived at the house, she walked into the room, made one statement, handed Jane L.’s transcript and walked away. They never saw her again. The discharge summary that we had asked be prepared and ready to go wasn’t ready, nor did Sue explain when it would be ready or even acknowledge that it wasn’t ready to go with L.. Before she and L. left, Jane ended up asking Kristi when it would be ready. We received it a few days later, luckily in time before our first scheduled appointment with L.’s local treatment providers.
We don’t know how you will interpret or take this letter. We hope that you will see it for what it is intended to be, a relaying of parents’ observations and concerns and how maybe things can be improved for others. It is not intended as criticism. Again, we appreciate all that was done for L. while at Uinta. After several years of therapy, L. had given up and nothing we could do would get her to engage in therapy and trying again. Now, she knows that she can feel good and is willing to work at it. That is a blessing.
Thank you again,
Wow. Thank you for that post, momof4. What a story. Sounds to me like you've been overly accommodating to Uinta Academy, and they've pretty much blown you off. Age 12 is a very young age to be sent off to a program. I can't believe how much they denied you access and contact with your own daughter. That can't have been very good for her. I'd see that as a real red flag if I were another parent reading this!
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Thanks. This is my hope, that other parents will read our story. I think you are right, we were overly accommodating. I think we were so beat up by the time we sent our daughter there we put up with more than we should have. You are right, we have had some re-learning to do with our daughter since she came home--trying to compensate for the damage that was done by the extreme separation tactics that went on. At one point when she was gone, our daughter thought that WE had asked to cut off contact with her (apparently that is an option for parents and she had seen it happen with other girls). She thought this because we had a couple of weeks where our family therapy time did not involve our daughter--one instance where we were being chewed out by Sue for expecting that she respond to a lengthy e-mail we had sent. (this was the conversation where she told us she was too busy to respond to parents). Our understanding is that Sue did nothing to reassure our daughter that this was not the case, so she thought this for a few weeks. It was horrible when we found out our daughter thought this, it finally spilled out that she was thinking we had asked to end contact with her when we were on a social phone call, the family teacher ended our phone call because she said we were discussing a therapy issue and we weren't allowed to do that. Again, devestating, to be trying to tell our daughter that we loved her and wanted to have contact with her and the phone is grabbed out of her hand and hung up. Awesome, just awesome.
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One can only imagine how harrowing that situation was for your daughter. Good work on pulling her out before things could get to far along. Cutting off contact with loved ones is just another rotten trick programs play to emotionally attack the kid and parents.
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It has been a while and I am not familiar w/ this Sue person but when we left our therapist did come to say good-bye but we saw hide nor hair of Jeff or Kristi. I personally thought this was rude and a little odd. If you are in the therapy business you ought to be able to suck it up for an uncomfortable good-bye. It just sort of was the icing on the cake(bad icing, bad cake) of the last couple of months of our daughter's stay where avoidance of us and even avoidance of her (i/e. very limited therapy). Given the economic situation you would think Jeff would be a little more savvy about greasing the parent wheel.
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I am responding to the site because I was talking with my dad, Jeff Simpson, this weekend and he mentioned to me he had just recently been informed of it by a parent and after checking it out was very disappointed. After I checked out, I wasn’t disappointed, I was angry! Just so you know I am not some young immature woman who had to attend program after program!!! I am a mother of three beautiful, smart, and caring girls, my oldest a teenager. I have a degree in Health Science and am now working on my BSN.
I can’t respond to some of the comments made by these moms nor do I know the young woman that made the comments about Uinta and my dad, but I do know my dad and mom. They are two of the most compassionate and giving people you will ever meet. I need to make some comments about the 5 program woman’s statements. They are so out of character for my dad as to be ridiculous. When the first girls came to Uinta they actually lived with my parents on our farm. As the program expanded my parents moved out, giving the farm up to the program. Both my dad and I have Celiac disease. We have always been careful about what we eat and consequently, have developed some “favorite” brands. As with most families, my parents have certain brands of food they prefer. One is Hunts ketchup, also, Best Mayo (we weren’t a Miracle Whip family), Campbell’s soup, Lays potato chip, Jif peanut butter and so on. My dad also likes to make jokes. He is very quick witted and funny. I can definitely see him making a joking comment about Heinz ketchup and politics. I can also tell you that he never tried to influence our political ideas and I know he wouldn’t do that in his program. He has always encouraged all of us kids to form our own, well thought out and researched, opinions. I also know he was a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton in the last election and donated heavily to her campaign! Last I checked, she is definitely NOT a Republican! So this young woman has no clue what she’s talking about. Also, my father would have never made the “garbage disposal” comment, she claims. He raised 3 daughters and a son and was always very sensitive to food/eating issues! Say what she may, it’s just not true. Lastly, he would never abuse any animal, especially one of his horses! I have seen him cry when a horse had to be put down. I have seen him stay up all night with a sick horse in the middle of the winter. I’ve seen him stop on the roadside on the way to church and cross a muddy field in his best suit to free a neighbor’s horse that was tangled in barb wire.
Just a few other things about my parents. Some people try to portray people like them as greedy. We didn’t buy our first home until I was 16 years old, because my parents spent most of their career, working for non-profit organizations that didn’t pay well, helping underprivileged and unwanted children and adolescents. At one time my dad worked in a program that tried to PREVENT children from having to leave their homes by sending a “family preservation” therapist to work with the family in their home. I remember one Christmas, early in the morning, he got a phone call from one of his families that was in a crisis. He immediately went over to their home and didn’t return until late that evening! They have dedicated their lives to helping children and their families; and for a few people to try and tarnish their work and their names is despicable!
One last thing to show you the character of my father. He always wanted a farm, so many years ago we were able to buy a small farm in Northern Utah. The place where they eventually started Uinta. The gentleman we bought it from was very old and when the time came for us to move in, he refused to leave. We had to leave our home as the new residents were to move in. It was early fall and school had just started so we moved a borrowed camp trailer under the hay barn on the property and moved into it waiting for the elderly gentleman to move out. He kept insisting it would be a “few weeks.” We soon realized he had no intention to move out. Sometimes he would unhook our water hose attached to the trailer or unplug the electrical cord attached to an outside outlet. My dad never said a word, never got mad, and never confronted this old man. He would say, he’s old, he’s attached to the farm and it’s hard for him to leave. My dad could have legally had him removed, but he never considered that. Do you know how difficult it can be for a family of six to live in a small camp trailer, especially under those circumstances? Well, you get through it with a LOT of patience and love. About three months after we got there, the old man passed away and 2 days later, after his family moved his belongings, we moved in to the home! That is the kind of compassion my father has for people. I doubt many other people, especially those that blog on these sites would have been as understanding and compassionate.
To those who read this, that is who my parents are. Granted I’m their daughter, but everything I’ve posted is true.
I’ll finish with a story my dad told us as little kids. There once was this Indian tribe and in the tribe was a woman who liked to talk about other people. It didn’t matter if the gossip was true or not, she always had something negative to say about other people. After years of this she was ostracized by everyone in the tribe and no one would talk to her, so she went to the wise Chief for advice, asking him how she can take back her words. He told her that when everyone was asleep that night, he wanted her to put a feather outside each of the teepees of anyone she had ever talked negatively about. That night she did so, placing a feather in front of every teepee in camp. However, during the night a huge storm came in and blew the feathers to the four corners of the world. In the morning she went to the wise Chief and told him that she had placed the feathers as she was instructed, but that a storm had blown them away. He told her to retrieve each and every one of the feathers. She said she could not, it would be impossible. He responded, and so shall it be to take back all the things you spoke of others!
Interestingly, one of the bloggers on this site named their first child after my father; another made ridiculous and untrue claims. Maybe blogging on this site says more about the people who blog here than it says about who they are blogging about!
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Uinta has been on a damage-control spree recently, some of it involving the wiki (http://http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Uinta_Academy&action=history).
Previous poster is likely part of this.
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I am touched by your defense of your Dad. Please realize everyone of these parents is mounting a defense of their daughter as well and that every thing posted by a student or a parent is also true. I'm sure Uinta is better than most but that doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. A good place to start is the facts: review the therapy of each student, see that it is consistent, regular and often, have the residence staff have input into therapy calls, summaries, etc. Look at the therapist notes and determine if there is a disconnect between what is told to the parents and what is actually going on. Review interactions with the psychiatrist. Is there an issue medication could help alleviate? Are "problem" students discussed more in depth with the doctor? A common thread I see in all these posts is a lack of communication and real feedback by the staff. That's a therapy problem, a business problem and a marketing problem. Like it or not, you are in a business. I also do not necessarily view the story of the old man refusing to abandon his home in a positive light. Aside from the fact that it has no relevance to the issues raised by the posters, my thought is that it is all well and good to be sympathetic to his situation but at the expense of your FAMILY? What kind of message was that sending to you? The man's family could have been called to intervene or neighbors could have made some efforts. The fact that this person was not confronted also appears to go to the lack of communication issue and hints at a possible conflict avoidance problem that also runs throughout the emails.
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My daughter, M, was at Uinta Academy for about 13 months due to severe anxiety and depression that manifested in self-hurting behavior (hair pulling and picking at her gums), inability to get out of bed and regularly attend school, inability to nourish herself properly (she had lost 20 lbs. from a normal weight), and a tendency to make the focus of her life based on others (often boys) rather than her own goals. M’s dad and I had divorced 3 years earlier just before she began high school, which M took rather hard, and we shared custody every other week.
M was doing OK until the third year when her dad began a new relationship with a woman and her children in another city about 30 minutes away. Whereas his focus prior to this had been to be the best dad he could be and work with me to make M his top priority, that changed as he began to leave M alone or with her adult brother a great deal of the time she was to be with him. By the time M got to Uinta, she had mastered “splitting behavior” that allowed her to get what she wanted by pitting her parents against each other.
For the most part, Uinta did a good job of working with M to turn her around, with one exception. Although we had insisted that M’s loss of weight was not due to a traditional eating disorder, but more her anxiety and depression, Uinta insisted that she sing EVERY time she went to the bathroom to prove that she was not purging, and this went on for several months. They kept insisting it was about M’s need for control, but it felt like an unnecessarily cruel deprivation of M's privacy.
When M was nearing time to come home, it was decided that she would do better living in one home rather than bouncing back between two. M and her dad had managed to convince the Uinta staff that I had anger management issues that contributed to her anxiety. In fact, I was just stricter with her and was the only parent who set limits and expectations for her. Therefore, M chose to live with her dad because she could manipulate him easier and he would give in to most everything she wanted. Despite my pleas that this would not be a good arrangement if for no other reason than the fact that he was not around enough to supervise her, they supported M’s decision because her dad lied that he would change his life to be around more for M. The very first weekend M was home, her dad left her all day on Sunday to go with his girlfriend and her children.
Now a little over 8 months later, M has completely resumed almost ALL of her prior negative behaviors. She sleeps at odd hours and for too long, she performs poorly in jr. college and misses class despite being an extremely bright young woman, she has now lost 15 lbs. of the weight she had gained back, and she still exhibits her self-hurting behaviors, although less so than before. She still lets her social activities dictate her life rather than any goals for a future, and she spends money on eating out or on whatever extras she wants without performing any chores because she knows that her dad will subsidize it. What a waste of around $30k of her college money!
If your daughter has any issues related to a divorce, DO NOT SEND HER THERE as they will thrust her back into the very situation that contributed to her problems in the first place.
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Alternatively, if you were less of a malevolent bitch she might not have had any problems in the first place.
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I am responding to the site because I was talking with my dad, Jeff Simpson, this weekend and he mentioned to me he had just recently been informed of it by a parent and after checking it out was very disappointed. After I checked out, I wasn’t disappointed, I was angry! Just so you know I am not some young immature woman who had to attend program after program!!! I am a mother of three beautiful, smart, and caring girls, my oldest a teenager. I have a degree in Health Science and am now working on my BSN.
I can’t respond to some of the comments made by these moms nor do I know the young woman that made the comments about Uinta and my dad, but I do know my dad and mom. They are two of the most compassionate and giving people you will ever meet. I need to make some comments about the 5 program woman’s statements. They are so out of character for my dad as to be ridiculous. When the first girls came to Uinta they actually lived with my parents on our farm. As the program expanded my parents moved out, giving the farm up to the program. Both my dad and I have Celiac disease. We have always been careful about what we eat and consequently, have developed some “favorite” brands. As with most families, my parents have certain brands of food they prefer. One is Hunts ketchup, also, Best Mayo (we weren’t a Miracle Whip family), Campbell’s soup, Lays potato chip, Jif peanut butter and so on. My dad also likes to make jokes. He is very quick witted and funny. I can definitely see him making a joking comment about Heinz ketchup and politics. I can also tell you that he never tried to influence our political ideas and I know he wouldn’t do that in his program. He has always encouraged all of us kids to form our own, well thought out and researched, opinions. I also know he was a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton in the last election and donated heavily to her campaign! Last I checked, she is definitely NOT a Republican! So this young woman has no clue what she’s talking about. Also, my father would have never made the “garbage disposal” comment, she claims. He raised 3 daughters and a son and was always very sensitive to food/eating issues! Say what she may, it’s just not true. Lastly, he would never abuse any animal, especially one of his horses! I have seen him cry when a horse had to be put down. I have seen him stay up all night with a sick horse in the middle of the winter. I’ve seen him stop on the roadside on the way to church and cross a muddy field in his best suit to free a neighbor’s horse that was tangled in barb wire.
Just a few other things about my parents. Some people try to portray people like them as greedy. We didn’t buy our first home until I was 16 years old, because my parents spent most of their career, working for non-profit organizations that didn’t pay well, helping underprivileged and unwanted children and adolescents. At one time my dad worked in a program that tried to PREVENT children from having to leave their homes by sending a “family preservation” therapist to work with the family in their home. I remember one Christmas, early in the morning, he got a phone call from one of his families that was in a crisis. He immediately went over to their home and didn’t return until late that evening! They have dedicated their lives to helping children and their families; and for a few people to try and tarnish their work and their names is despicable!
One last thing to show you the character of my father. He always wanted a farm, so many years ago we were able to buy a small farm in Northern Utah. The place where they eventually started Uinta. The gentleman we bought it from was very old and when the time came for us to move in, he refused to leave. We had to leave our home as the new residents were to move in. It was early fall and school had just started so we moved a borrowed camp trailer under the hay barn on the property and moved into it waiting for the elderly gentleman to move out. He kept insisting it would be a “few weeks.” We soon realized he had no intention to move out. Sometimes he would unhook our water hose attached to the trailer or unplug the electrical cord attached to an outside outlet. My dad never said a word, never got mad, and never confronted this old man. He would say, he’s old, he’s attached to the farm and it’s hard for him to leave. My dad could have legally had him removed, but he never considered that. Do you know how difficult it can be for a family of six to live in a small camp trailer, especially under those circumstances? Well, you get through it with a LOT of patience and love. About three months after we got there, the old man passed away and 2 days later, after his family moved his belongings, we moved in to the home! That is the kind of compassion my father has for people. I doubt many other people, especially those that blog on these sites would have been as understanding and compassionate.
To those who read this, that is who my parents are. Granted I’m their daughter, but everything I’ve posted is true.
I’ll finish with a story my dad told us as little kids. There once was this Indian tribe and in the tribe was a woman who liked to talk about other people. It didn’t matter if the gossip was true or not, she always had something negative to say about other people. After years of this she was ostracized by everyone in the tribe and no one would talk to her, so she went to the wise Chief for advice, asking him how she can take back her words. He told her that when everyone was asleep that night, he wanted her to put a feather outside each of the teepees of anyone she had ever talked negatively about. That night she did so, placing a feather in front of every teepee in camp. However, during the night a huge storm came in and blew the feathers to the four corners of the world. In the morning she went to the wise Chief and told him that she had placed the feathers as she was instructed, but that a storm had blown them away. He told her to retrieve each and every one of the feathers. She said she could not, it would be impossible. He responded, and so shall it be to take back all the things you spoke of others!
Interestingly, one of the bloggers on this site named their first child after my father; another made ridiculous and untrue claims. Maybe blogging on this site says more about the people who blog here than it says about who they are blogging about!
Jeesh, did everyone notice that Ursus and Che had nothing, I mean absolutely nothing to say to this poster.
Ursus and Che, this is why you two lack in the credibility department.
You don't even have the common decency to acknowledge a post that was written with intelligence and conviction.
Say something, act like you have some balance.
Both of you should not even bother to try and interact with the public here, just copy and post. It compliments your estranged personalities.
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Alternatively, if you were less of a malevolent bitch she might not have had any problems in the first place.
Here is are Poster Child, Pile, abusing another mother. Please do tell this mother and the community here, just what is your problem, today. Well lets say you did.
"C A Mom", I would not take what this disturbed poster has said, seriously. This particular poster enjoys bouncing from post to post that mothers have written and antagonizing them. Just let his berating roll off your back.
Thank you for posting and please find the time to come back. We would like to hear more.
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I am responding to the site because I was talking with my dad, Jeff Simpson, this weekend and he mentioned to me he had just recently been informed of it by a parent and after checking it out was very disappointed. After I checked out, I wasn’t disappointed, I was angry! Just so you know I am not some young immature woman who had to attend program after program!!! I am a mother of three beautiful, smart, and caring girls, my oldest a teenager. I have a degree in Health Science and am now working on my BSN.
I can’t respond to some of the comments made by these moms nor do I know the young woman that made the comments about Uinta and my dad, but I do know my dad and mom. They are two of the most compassionate and giving people you will ever meet. I need to make some comments about the 5 program woman’s statements. They are so out of character for my dad as to be ridiculous. When the first girls came to Uinta they actually lived with my parents on our farm. As the program expanded my parents moved out, giving the farm up to the program. Both my dad and I have Celiac disease. We have always been careful about what we eat and consequently, have developed some “favorite” brands. As with most families, my parents have certain brands of food they prefer. One is Hunts ketchup, also, Best Mayo (we weren’t a Miracle Whip family), Campbell’s soup, Lays potato chip, Jif peanut butter and so on. My dad also likes to make jokes. He is very quick witted and funny. I can definitely see him making a joking comment about Heinz ketchup and politics. I can also tell you that he never tried to influence our political ideas and I know he wouldn’t do that in his program. He has always encouraged all of us kids to form our own, well thought out and researched, opinions. I also know he was a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton in the last election and donated heavily to her campaign! Last I checked, she is definitely NOT a Republican! So this young woman has no clue what she’s talking about. Also, my father would have never made the “garbage disposal” comment, she claims. He raised 3 daughters and a son and was always very sensitive to food/eating issues! Say what she may, it’s just not true. Lastly, he would never abuse any animal, especially one of his horses! I have seen him cry when a horse had to be put down. I have seen him stay up all night with a sick horse in the middle of the winter. I’ve seen him stop on the roadside on the way to church and cross a muddy field in his best suit to free a neighbor’s horse that was tangled in barb wire.
Just a few other things about my parents. Some people try to portray people like them as greedy. We didn’t buy our first home until I was 16 years old, because my parents spent most of their career, working for non-profit organizations that didn’t pay well, helping underprivileged and unwanted children and adolescents. At one time my dad worked in a program that tried to PREVENT children from having to leave their homes by sending a “family preservation” therapist to work with the family in their home. I remember one Christmas, early in the morning, he got a phone call from one of his families that was in a crisis. He immediately went over to their home and didn’t return until late that evening! They have dedicated their lives to helping children and their families; and for a few people to try and tarnish their work and their names is despicable!
One last thing to show you the character of my father. He always wanted a farm, so many years ago we were able to buy a small farm in Northern Utah. The place where they eventually started Uinta. The gentleman we bought it from was very old and when the time came for us to move in, he refused to leave. We had to leave our home as the new residents were to move in. It was early fall and school had just started so we moved a borrowed camp trailer under the hay barn on the property and moved into it waiting for the elderly gentleman to move out. He kept insisting it would be a “few weeks.” We soon realized he had no intention to move out. Sometimes he would unhook our water hose attached to the trailer or unplug the electrical cord attached to an outside outlet. My dad never said a word, never got mad, and never confronted this old man. He would say, he’s old, he’s attached to the farm and it’s hard for him to leave. My dad could have legally had him removed, but he never considered that. Do you know how difficult it can be for a family of six to live in a small camp trailer, especially under those circumstances? Well, you get through it with a LOT of patience and love. About three months after we got there, the old man passed away and 2 days later, after his family moved his belongings, we moved in to the home! That is the kind of compassion my father has for people. I doubt many other people, especially those that blog on these sites would have been as understanding and compassionate.
To those who read this, that is who my parents are. Granted I’m their daughter, but everything I’ve posted is true.
I’ll finish with a story my dad told us as little kids. There once was this Indian tribe and in the tribe was a woman who liked to talk about other people. It didn’t matter if the gossip was true or not, she always had something negative to say about other people. After years of this she was ostracized by everyone in the tribe and no one would talk to her, so she went to the wise Chief for advice, asking him how she can take back her words. He told her that when everyone was asleep that night, he wanted her to put a feather outside each of the teepees of anyone she had ever talked negatively about. That night she did so, placing a feather in front of every teepee in camp. However, during the night a huge storm came in and blew the feathers to the four corners of the world. In the morning she went to the wise Chief and told him that she had placed the feathers as she was instructed, but that a storm had blown them away. He told her to retrieve each and every one of the feathers. She said she could not, it would be impossible. He responded, and so shall it be to take back all the things you spoke of others!
Interestingly, one of the bloggers on this site named their first child after my father; another made ridiculous and untrue claims. Maybe blogging on this site says more about the people who blog here than it says about who they are blogging about!
Thank you very much for this testimony concerning your Dad. It was received well here.
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Bear with me on this one, this is going to be a long one. My reasons for posting this are varied. Probably the biggest one is that I hope this might be an avenue to let other parents out there know about our experience with Uinta Academy of Wellsville, Utah.
As a background our youngest has suffered from extreme panic/anxiety disorder for 5+ years. After exhausting every available option, we made the difficult decision to place her at Uinta. The center was recommended to us by an educational consultant. We did not insurance to cover any of it. While we had some positive outcome from her time at Uinta, we also endured a lot of frustration and heartbreak at how we were treated by staff. Bottom line, L.’s therapist, looking for a reason for L.’s issues, decided that I must have anger management issues and therefore was the reason for L.’s disorder. I should disclose that L., in an attempt to be able to come home, fabricated to her therapist that she needed to leave treatment so that I could get treatment for anger issues. L. later told her therapist that she had made it all up in a mis-guided attempt to make us pull her out of treatment. It was too late, the ink had been set. Sue’s (Sue Hoffman–L.’s primary therapist at Uinta) mind was made up, ‘bad kid-bad mom’. I should say that I am like most moms, I advocate for my children. And, when I feel that someone is trying to prevent me from seeing/having contact with my child, I am going to question it and be tenacious in my quest to protect my child. Our perception was that this was interpreted as a bad thing by Sue and the staff at Uinta–they felt we were too controlling. I should also say that during the almost 9 months L. was in Utah, we were granted permission to see her 3 times, she was 12 years old! Incidentally, after she came home from Uinta, she has received a diagnosis of Panic/Anxiety Disorder--Separation Anxiety, meaning that she never went thru separation anxiety as a toddler, therefore it came on at a later time and was that much more severe....Uinta's approach to cut off almost all contact with our daughter, was the worst thing for her. Live and learn.
A difficult part for me has been that someone who didn’t know me (nor took anytime to get to know who I was) decided who they thought I was and it was a very ugly depiction. In an ‘exit interview’ with one of our local providers, Sue even went so far as to tell him that she felt I was a ‘potential barrier to L.’s treatment’ and that I appeared to have issues that needed to be investigated. I was devastated. I’m still trying to get over that one.
After L. came home, we felt we needed to send a letter to Jeff Simpson. Jeff and his wife Becky, established Uinta. The following is excerpts from that letter which described some of our experience with Uinta. While we know that he received the letter, we never received a response from Jeff, Becky, or Sue. Here goes....
Dear Jeff:
We wanted to thank you and Becky for establishing Uinta and offering a spot for L. to be there. In all of our interactions with you, we have always walked away feeling your desire to help make a real difference in the lives of the girls that find their way to Uinta . It’s very apparent that it isn’t just a job for you, it’s a passion. L., and our family have benefitted greatly from her time at Uinta.
...
Other factors for bringing L. home, were our increasing unease with what we felt was lack of access to L. as well as our perceived direction of where L.’s treatment might be going. We understand that our perceptions might be mis-perceptions, but they were our perceptions that we simply could not ‘shake’. Finally, we could not ignore our parental instinct and we made the difficult decision to bring her home.
For the last several weeks we have struggled with whether to voice our concerns to you, and we finally decided to share with you some things that we experienced while L. was at Uinta. To preface all of this, we want to state that we feel Sue worked extremely well with L. and so we repeatedly tried to set our own misgivings and concerns aside in the interest of our daughter’s treatment.
From the very beginning, we had an undefined uneasiness about our interactions with Sue. We felt like she was constantly trying to ‘put us in our place’ and establish that she was in control of our daughter and that she didn’t really need or want our input. Again, we will readily admit that this is our perception and that it might be a mis-perception, but we are relaying how we felt, not just once, but repeatedly. Reasons why we felt this way? The examples are varied. One simple one was Sue not turning her cell phone off (or even turning it to vibrate) during our family therapy sessions. We often felt that she was distracted by her cell phone, checking e-mail, etc. during our family therapy sessions. We want to be clear that this was not just once, it went off almost every session. One session we could even tell that she was texting during our session. Incidentally this was a very important session where we were telling L. she was coming home–L. when hearing the news, stated ‘oh you all think I’m good enough to go home?’ Because Sue was busy texting someone else, she made no response to this statement. We ended up explaining to L. that we felt she had worked very hard and that she would need to continue treatment when she was at home. Sue never responded to this, and as her therapist, we certainly could have used her direction and at least assistance in this conversation with L.. In our years of working with therapists, we had never experienced this and we felt that it showed a lack of respect to our limited family therapy time. Again, please understand that we are not completely dense and selfish to not realize that there are emergencies that may come up from time to time. However, we also know that Uinta has a wonderfully trained staff of family teachers that are always available. We were just frustrated at our perceived lack of her respect to L. and our family therapy time by the fact that her cell phone was not silenced during our sessions. After bringing L. home, she told us that it bothered her that Sue would take phone calls from her daughter during their sessions, or that she would check e-mail, etc., during their therapy time. We wonder how it would have been perceived if we had our cell phones going off and were texting others during our family therapy sessions. My guess is that Sue would not have looked on it too favorably and that she might have felt we weren’t fully engaged in our family therapy.
Another ongoing issue was trying to schedule visits with L.. One of our main concerns when we made the decision to send L. to Uinta was whether or not we would be able to have regular visits with L.. Looking back at our notes of our initial phone conversation with you and Becky, we noted that you said we would be able to see her approximately every 6-7 weeks. We always understood that any of these visits were subject to last minute cancellation if L. had not earned the privilege. Our frustration was getting even the ok to plan a visit.
We don’t know how it works with other parents and therapists, but we (perhaps wrongly) expected that after 1 visit was complete, the therapist would say, ok that visit went well, next visit could be <date>, why don’t you plan for that, and we will decide the week of if your daughter has earned it. That never happened. Without going into the he said/she said scenarios of how each visit was scheduled, suffice it to say that we were always left feeling like we had no say in when we could and could not see our daughter. Better communication on this issue would have greatly relieved a lot of our family’s stress. Instead, we often used valuable family therapy time discussing logistics of visits. If a clearer level of written communication had existed in this area, we could have better used that time with L. on actual therapy issues.
That brings us to another nagging concern that we could never shake. E-mail communication, and our perception (or again readily admitted possible mis-perception) that Sue never completely read our e-mails. Please understand that we tried to keep e-mail to a minimum. We understood Sue’s time constraints, and we didn’t want to be parents that filled the in-box. However, from the beginning we were told (at parent weekend) that e-mail was the best way to communicate–if we had questions or concerns we should send an e-mail. For example as to why we felt they weren’t fully read, when we would send an e-mail with 3 questions, we might receive an answer back to 1 of them. We would re-send and this would go back and forth. We also had it more than once that we would send something, have no response, and then the following week in family therapy we would bring the concern up and to us it always felt like she hadn’t read it, or at the most skimmed it and put it aside. Sometimes it wasn’t questions, it might have been input and observations that we felt important to L.’s ongoing therapy–we don’t think these type of e-mails ever received a response, or even a one line acknowledgment to the extent of ‘thanks for the information’. Sometimes we wondered if she had even received our e-mail (maybe a simple setting on the e-mail system that sends out auto receipt acknowledgments??)
When L. hit her 6 month mark we sent a detailed e-mail asking if it was possible to have a phone conference with the entire treatment team and we listed the things we wanted to discuss. We also listed several things that we would like input from the academic team on. The following week when we finally discussed the e-mail, it came across to us repeatedly during our conversation that it was very possible Sue had not fully read the e-mail. For instance, she asked us what information we wanted from the academic team–this had been detailed in the e-mail. At one point she said to us, it sounds like maybe it would be a good idea to have a phone conference with the treatment team, would you be ok with doing that? To this we responded yes, we would be in to that, that is why we asked for it in our original e-mail. It was during this conversation that we were told our level of reaction to receiving no response from her was excessive. Sue told us she was very busy working with girls and that she often didn’t have time to respond to parents, and finally that we needed to understand that Uinta was better at communication than other facilities so we should be glad that there was the level of communication that there was. More than once we expressed to Sue that at times we felt like we had no idea what was going on with L. and her treatment. Sue always defensively responded ‘that’s not true, you know what is going on with her’, invalidating our feelings.
When Sue told us she often didn’t have time to respond to parents and that essentially that is just how it was, we were disheartened and walked away with the perception (again our possible mis-perception) that Sue did not really need or want us involved in L.’s treatment. This was very concerning to us. We did not want L. to perceive that we didn’t want to be involved in her treatment, or that we had asked to have limited contact with her. We realize that some might view this as a control issue, we view it as wanting to be involved in our 12 year old’s life and treatment and our desire to continue to build a healthy relationship with her as she grows up. Finally, it was sad when Jane went to bring L. home and Sue had nothing to say, not even good-bye. Jane had told her and Kristi ahead of time when she would be arriving. When Jane arrived, no one was available (which is understandable–it was the middle of the day). When Sue later arrived at the house, she walked into the room, made one statement, handed Jane L.’s transcript and walked away. They never saw her again. The discharge summary that we had asked be prepared and ready to go wasn’t ready, nor did Sue explain when it would be ready or even acknowledge that it wasn’t ready to go with L.. Before she and L. left, Jane ended up asking Kristi when it would be ready. We received it a few days later, luckily in time before our first scheduled appointment with L.’s local treatment providers.
We don’t know how you will interpret or take this letter. We hope that you will see it for what it is intended to be, a relaying of parents’ observations and concerns and how maybe things can be improved for others. It is not intended as criticism. Again, we appreciate all that was done for L. while at Uinta. After several years of therapy, L. had given up and nothing we could do would get her to engage in therapy and trying again. Now, she knows that she can feel good and is willing to work at it. That is a blessing.
Thank you again,
Thanks momof4, I also believe that conditions at programs for children can always improve. I can only hope that the poster "oldest" daughter of the owner of Uinta, took into consideration your thoughts and observations.
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Congratulations. You've all received support from a guy whose most famous exploit on this board is dragging a teenage girl behind his car.
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Congratulations. You've all received support from a guy whose most famous exploit on this board is dragging a teenage girl behind his car.
Problem is Pile, every time you mention this crazy made up act, you reinforce what all of us think about you. You can't be trusted, you abuse mothers and children and quite frankly we would be very happy if you would work on a attitude adjustment or leave. Which ever comes first. You have managed in a few short weeks to lose whatever credibility you had here.
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DannyBII is an admitted alcoholic, drug addict and very proud child abuser. My question to readers here is this: Does someone like that have an opinion that matters to anyone but himself? Danny go back to what you know best: blowin truckers for dope money.
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So I read through this thread and had a really interesting time reading everyone's opinions, very interesting.
In March 07 I was sent by my parents against my will to a wilderness program, in June 07 I left that program and followed it up at Uinta.
I'm pretty sure I managed to butt heads with every staff member, as well as several therapists and most of the other girls while I was there, I didn't accept the program easily and I left shortly before my 18th birthday with no graduation and a lot of hard feelings. While I made a little progress in some areas I was not "cured" and would absolutely say I've relapsed and undone 98% of the progress I did make there, but this isn't about me, its about the program.
Uinta is really what each girl makes of it. I was headstrong, angry at my parents and the program as well as everyone in it, and I had no desire to change myself or accept anyone's help so I did not enjoy Uinta, other girls who were more willing had much more helpful and enlightening experiences. I believe that the program is flawed but that's why Jeff and Becky are almost constantly making changes.
And seriously? Some of you, especially girls who attended the program, are trying to make Jeff and Becky seem like bad people? :roflmao:
Jeff and Becky are two of the nicest, most compassionate people I have met in my entire life.
I lived on the East campus which is home to Jeff's office and when he'd walk into work doling out hugs and high fives to girls as he made his way to his office it was the highlight of my day, he'd always stop and say hi and discuss with you whatever issues were bothering you whether it be with your schoolwork, a peer, your therapy or maybe your horse just did something particularly adorable and you want to brag. He had stopped doing therapy by the time I'd found my way into the program but despite that, when I was there he took time out of his personal life once or twice a week to come in on weekends or in the evenings and meet one on one to do therapy with a girl who has struggling especially hard. A girl tried to run once after feeding the horses at night and when we went to bed a few staff members were sitting in a field with her trying to convince her to come back. She was my room mate at the time and at 3am we woke up to Jeff arriving. He woke up in the middle of the night to voluntarily come out to the campus and bring the girl back inside and talk to her. He was not asked to do that, its what he pays the staff to do, but because he actually CARES, he personally went to help resolve the situation.
Becky is, if possible, even more caring than her husband. When I arrived she let me pick my horse after meeting the available ones and helped me form an incredibly strong bond with my horse, Sugar. That december, right around christmas time Jeff was forced to sell my horse due to her roughness. She was a handful and with so many girls having little to no experience with horses she was too high strung and almost a danger in that environment. Becky woke up early on a cold snowy Sunday morning before it was even light out so she could be there with me when the new owner came to take her away. She cried with me as I loaded my horse into the trailer and watched it drive away and sat with me until I was ready to go back inside with everyone else. She saw how much it hurt me to have to say goodbye to Sugar and went above and beyond to make it up to me, even offering to let me work with one of her family's personal horses, tonto, who she knew I was extremely fond of. She became very sick towards the end of my stay, so much so that she was unable to accompany us on trips or attend graduation ceremonies. It broke her heart not being able to see and work with us, especially when it came to graduations and not being able to say goodbye. Jeff never failed to tear up when he passed on messages from her or updated us on how she was doing and on our Tuscon trip where we first found out she was sick, you could see in every single concerned face in the room that she'd touched everyone's life in some way.
Jeff and Becky's program may not be perfect, it may not be the most effective, and it may not be right for you or your daughter, but I have never seen anyone try harder to make people's lives just a little bit better. They aren't in it for the money, they aren't in it for glory, and they aren't in it because its a job. They built Uinta out of nothing purely because they wanted to help kids who were struggling.
I'm not sure which of their children entered the post previously, but I've met most of their kids and one of their grandkids and I can take a guess. You may say her opinion is biased because she doesn't want people bad mouthing her family over the internet but I read what she wrote and even though the examples she provided came from her personal home life which I was not a part of, there is no doubt in my mind that shes telling the truth.
No one understands better than me what its like to have a bad Uinta experience, but you cant put that all on their shoulders, its not fair. They are providing you with an opportunity. you may or may not appreciate and take advantage of that opportunity but if you choose to ignore and/or abuse it, its not their fault. Even though I disliked being there, Uinta was a once in a lifetime experience that I wouldnt trade for the world. It may not have resolved my rebellious and defiant behavioral issues but it absolutely broadened my horizons and benefited me in other ways. While at Uinta I found myself with a 3.0 GPA, by far the highest it had been since grade school, I went white water rafting and learned German, something I never thought I'd do, and it allowed me an opportunity to get healthy again, to get into shape and learn how to be self reliant.
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You gave the game away right here:
doling out hugs and high fives to girls
Any actual females who went to a place like that wouldn't be able to write this no matter how badly their minds were broken. Too creepy.
Odds are you're the same UtahRoper fuck who's been vandalizing the wiki (http://http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title=Uinta_Academy).
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So I read through this thread and had a really interesting time reading everyone's opinions, very interesting.
In March 07 I was sent by my parents against my will to a wilderness program, in June 07 I left that program and followed it up at Uinta.
I'm pretty sure I managed to butt heads with every staff member, as well as several therapists and most of the other girls while I was there, I didn't accept the program easily and I left shortly before my 18th birthday with no graduation and a lot of hard feelings. While I made a little progress in some areas I was not "cured" and would absolutely say I've relapsed and undone 98% of the progress I did make there, but this isn't about me, its about the program.
Uinta is really what each girl makes of it. I was headstrong, angry at my parents and the program as well as everyone in it, and I had no desire to change myself or accept anyone's help so I did not enjoy Uinta, other girls who were more willing had much more helpful and enlightening experiences. I believe that the program is flawed but that's why Jeff and Becky are almost constantly making changes.
And seriously? Some of you, especially girls who attended the program, are trying to make Jeff and Becky seem like bad people? :roflmao:
Jeff and Becky are two of the nicest, most compassionate people I have met in my entire life.
I lived on the East campus which is home to Jeff's office and when he'd walk into work doling out hugs and high fives to girls as he made his way to his office it was the highlight of my day, he'd always stop and say hi and discuss with you whatever issues were bothering you whether it be with your schoolwork, a peer, your therapy or maybe your horse just did something particularly adorable and you want to brag. He had stopped doing therapy by the time I'd found my way into the program but despite that, when I was there he took time out of his personal life once or twice a week to come in on weekends or in the evenings and meet one on one to do therapy with a girl who has struggling especially hard. A girl tried to run once after feeding the horses at night and when we went to bed a few staff members were sitting in a field with her trying to convince her to come back. She was my room mate at the time and at 3am we woke up to Jeff arriving. He woke up in the middle of the night to voluntarily come out to the campus and bring the girl back inside and talk to her. He was not asked to do that, its what he pays the staff to do, but because he actually CARES, he personally went to help resolve the situation.
Becky is, if possible, even more caring than her husband. When I arrived she let me pick my horse after meeting the available ones and helped me form an incredibly strong bond with my horse, Sugar. That december, right around christmas time Jeff was forced to sell my horse due to her roughness. She was a handful and with so many girls having little to no experience with horses she was too high strung and almost a danger in that environment. Becky woke up early on a cold snowy Sunday morning before it was even light out so she could be there with me when the new owner came to take her away. She cried with me as I loaded my horse into the trailer and watched it drive away and sat with me until I was ready to go back inside with everyone else. She saw how much it hurt me to have to say goodbye to Sugar and went above and beyond to make it up to me, even offering to let me work with one of her family's personal horses, tonto, who she knew I was extremely fond of. She became very sick towards the end of my stay, so much so that she was unable to accompany us on trips or attend graduation ceremonies. It broke her heart not being able to see and work with us, especially when it came to graduations and not being able to say goodbye. Jeff never failed to tear up when he passed on messages from her or updated us on how she was doing and on our Tuscon trip where we first found out she was sick, you could see in every single concerned face in the room that she'd touched everyone's life in some way.
Jeff and Becky's program may not be perfect, it may not be the most effective, and it may not be right for you or your daughter, but I have never seen anyone try harder to make people's lives just a little bit better. They aren't in it for the money, they aren't in it for glory, and they aren't in it because its a job. They built Uinta out of nothing purely because they wanted to help kids who were struggling.
I'm not sure which of their children entered the post previously, but I've met most of their kids and one of their grandkids and I can take a guess. You may say her opinion is biased because she doesn't want people bad mouthing her family over the internet but I read what she wrote and even though the examples she provided came from her personal home life which I was not a part of, there is no doubt in my mind that shes telling the truth.
No one understands better than me what its like to have a bad Uinta experience, but you cant put that all on their shoulders, its not fair. They are providing you with an opportunity. you may or may not appreciate and take advantage of that opportunity but if you choose to ignore and/or abuse it, its not their fault. Even though I disliked being there, Uinta was a once in a lifetime experience that I wouldnt trade for the world. It may not have resolved my rebellious and defiant behavioral issues but it absolutely broadened my horizons and benefited me in other ways. While at Uinta I found myself with a 3.0 GPA, by far the highest it had been since grade school, I went white water rafting and learned German, something I never thought I'd do, and it allowed me an opportunity to get healthy again, to get into shape and learn how to be self reliant.
If my mom were to fabricate a post, pretending to be me, it would sound very much like this. All about the missed "opportunity", no mention of the abuse, humiliation and degradation that is inherent in "behavior modification".
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you guys are hilarious. its really cute how you have to accuse me of trolling to feel right and better about yourselves.
im not here to stoop to your level or argue with you so dont waste your time comparing me to your mother or whoever the fuck you think i really am. jeff and becky wouldnt waste their time with your games sop you can feel content im neither of them nor would they bother sending anyone out here to "damage control"
people defend them because they're good people, get the fuck over it.
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I'm pretty sure I managed to butt heads with every staff member, as well as several therapists and most of the other girls while I was there, I didn't accept the program easily and I left shortly before my 18th birthday with no graduation and a lot of hard feelings. While I made a little progress in some areas I was not "cured" and would absolutely say I've relapsed and undone 98% of the progress I did make there, but this isn't about me, its about the program.
Stop blaming yourself, the condition they were trying to "cure" you of is called adolescence and is completely normal. In fact, their interference in your adolescence almost certainly did you more harm than good. The kind of person you grow up into is up to you and nobody else. Nobody has the right to force you to be the person they think you should be. If you were treated with dignity and respect for your thoughts and opinions by these two superheroes, Jeff and Becky, then why did you not graduate? When the kid does well, the school takes full credit. When the kid fails to make it, it's the kid's fault. Did they give your parents their money back?
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Don't bother, Shady; if this one was real it wouldn't speak of "trolling" or "damage control".
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if this one was real it wouldn't speak of "trolling" or "damage control".
Odd that, eh? No one in recent discussion had even mentioned those words, and yet:
you guys are hilarious. its really cute how you have to accuse me of trolling to feel right and better about yourselves.
im not here to stoop to your level or argue with you so dont waste your time comparing me to your mother or whoever the fuck you think i really am. jeff and becky wouldnt waste their time with your games sop you can feel content im neither of them nor would they bother sending anyone out here to "damage control"
people defend them because they're good people, get the fuck over it.