You wanna back that statement up with some independently gathered statistics? Aahh... that's right. There are none, because industry members know that such statistics would likely show the "Fornits side" of the story to be more accurate. With the money they have, if such statistics could be produced, they would be (but they can't).
We can all speculate on what the outcome of the study would be, but none of us know. Companies are not going to fund a study unless they know what they are going to do with the results, so there needs to be some sort of motivation to have the study done.
As it stands today the industry is doing well. The schools are running to near capacity, the feedback from the kids and family via oral and mail-out surveys are showing success, so how would a clinical study benefit anyone?
I think the competition between schools and programs (the struggle for market share) would have to dictate the need to perform a study to show better performance. The schools could use this data to sway parents to their program and gain an advantage over their competing schools.
But until such time as there are too many schools and too few kids then I don’t see anyone paying for clinical studies.
Well. I can't prove to you that my motivations are sincere. Perhaps that's why you chose to question me on this. What I don't do is make a buck off dead kids' testimonials (like Seth H.)
I believe you,psy, and have always thought you were fair and did the right thing. I have a hard time when people assume a child took their life because of a specific event. Kids suffer a long time and struggle with many issues before most of them succeed in taking their own life. For any of us to say it was because his girlfriend broke up with him, or a staff member at Benchmark, or some guy on the street screaming at him and calling him a loser or his parents last phone call was the last straw is a stab in the dark at best…we don’t know.
I find it hard to swallow that everytime a child takes his life, that has attended a program, then the program was automatically at fault. Kids have been committing suicide long before programs started springing up and many kids show up at the schools doorstep with a history of attempts.
What about you? What's your cause? Who do you work for? Why not tell us all here. It's not like it's a name or anything.
I have told my story many times here and why I post here. I had a daughter attend a TBS and thought I could contribute and add a long needed balance to this forum.
Someday when the industry gets cleaned up a little more and some of the anger subsides we will all get together and have a big party and talk about old times here on fornits, but for now, I think it is best to stay anonymous.
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