Fornits

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

Pretty sure Chuck Long, too, thought God was talking to him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Long_%28ABSRA%29

almost certain they were both mistaken.

In that earlier thread I posted this:

Also a mention of the PCS curriculum in the November '08 Oregon Outdoor Youth Program Advisory Board meeting minutes.

http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/children/comm ... inutes.pdf

Those minutes seem to no longer be on the OR DHS website--of course you can find a cached version.  

There are no standards in this business (restraint or "de-escalation" techniques) from what I can tell--make up a program, "certify" yourself as effective and appropriate,  sell/teach it to others, "certify" them, reap the profits--sound familiar?

The panel consisted of: Dwayne Roberts, MD, CCFP, CCFP (EM), CAQ Sports MED, Director, Utah Valley Sports Medicine Fellowship, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, Edwin Weigh, PA, Medical Consultant for the Catherine Freer Wilderness Therapy Expeditions; and Dr. Keith Hooker, sports physician, emergency room doctor, mountain climber, one of the founders of the Aspen Program, and a medical consultant for many wilderness programs

To begin the discussion, Dr. Hooker explained there is no cost-effective way of screening all the potential risk factors in applicants of wilderness programs; even major sports teams do not use expensive tests unless an applicant’s case history indicates the need for further testing.....

Edwin Weigh, PA (Physician's Assistant), was the person who ran the code, from OR, on our daughter, Erica Harvey, while she was dying in NV.  He was also described, by Freer personnel,  before and after her death as Dr. Weigh.  Took us at least a year to find out otherwise.

Some panel--was that at a NATSAP event or OBHIC?

http://edlabor.house.gov/

NATSAP cannot pretend to be truly interested in ethics or a code of behavior for their members until they make and enforce sanctions against their members.  

NATSAP is a truly classic case of the fox watching the henhouse.  More than one member program of NATSAP has had "critical incidents" that resulted in injury or death and, to my knowledge, other than spin control, NATSAP did not address these incidents in any way.  

If NATSAP really wanted to function as a governing body, they would have parent and student representatives on their Board and they would truly police their members, not merely shield them and award them.

EricasMom,
Cynthia

Ginger,

Yes it's new and improved.  and yes, I am resistant to change, but I'm glad you're still here doing the good work you're doing.

Thanks for all your efforts--

Erica's mom

I read the book when it first came out and watched the movie --with my teenage daughter-- when it premiered a week or so ago.

The book was good, it was an honest account of the mom's confusion, anger and terror over her daughter's behavior. The movie more or less followed the book in a factual way, but really didn't capture the voice of the mom. Even though Mom spent  vast amounts of money on Wilderness and an EG boarding school, she doesn't credit (or discredit) those things for the happy turn her daughter's life eventually took.

In fact, the daughter never "graduated" from the boarding school, she ran off and spent some time on the streets (Seattle, I think) before coming home, going to an alternative school and getting on with her life.  This was shown in the movie, but I don't think it's a part that will stick in viewers' minds.

Also, in the book and in the movie, Augusta's best friend at the EG school is a young woman who never should have been placed there (she'd been molested by a family friend, and the family just wanted her out of the way).  The girl completes suicide while  in the care and custody of the school, though I think the method differs from the book to the movies.  This incident should be a glaring indictment for the industry, but again, I think the average viewer will think "How sad" and not much else.

To be honest, when I read the book, I didn't know much about the "troubled-parent" industry, even though I was becoming a troubled parent.  I do not remember coming away from the book with any sense of endorsement of the industry by the author.  

As far as the movie, I think just by the fact that it presents the story as "Augusta went bad then Mom did this and this and this and ultimately Augusta got happy and healthy the end" it would leave most viewers with the idea that the this and this and this that Mom did must have made Augusta well, because otherwise it wouldn't make any sense.

Those of us who know better should watch it so that if any of our friends a relatives see it we can explain what really happened to Augusta--she grew up.

http://www.oxfamerica.org/newsandpublic ... nciousness

There is great material here about activism and writing your Representative.  

Every letter that a legislator receives is presumed to represent the views of 250 voters--who didn't take the time to write.  Everyone who speaks out or writes a letter *for* or *against* HR1738 will be multiplied 250X in the mind of their Representative.

Take a few minutes to make some noise.  Whether this bill succeeds or fails, at least we can raise the attention level of our law-makers and the Press.