AARC Gala

[ajax13]

There is no question that the methods used in AARC are harmful.  They are derived from the attack therapy used in Synanon, and the replicated in the Seed, Straight Inc., and Kids.  AARC also uses a peer group to confront, humiliate and coerce the individual to produce conformity.  Studies of these methods have demonstrated a tendency to produce long-term psychological damage in the those subjected to the process.  These techniques were used by both the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese to extract false confessions from American servicemen for use in propaganda campaigns.  It's anybody's guess as to why they are being used in AARC.

[TheWho]

I was in AARC with a couple of people with genuine psychiatric disorders, and they are crazy as ever today. I'm sorry, but humiliation and thought reform techniques just aren't a cure for schizophrenia. It makes me really sad when I think of how many clients in AARC had underlying issues that were ignored while AARC staff berated them for being "loser druggies." For a while after AARC they played along - probably even convinced themselves that AARC had cured them and saved their lives. But when they fell, they fell hard - and who wouldn't after having it drilled it into your brain that you'll die and will never feel happiness again unless you devote your life to a cult and do everything they've taught you. Putting a kid in AARC for a year when they have a serious mental health disorder is like putting an AIDS patient through chemo. It's brutal, and in the end, they'll still have a serious untreated condition.

That is one of the underlying problems of any treatment Centre or therapeutic boarding school.  Kids should be seen by a local therapist prior to placement in a therapeutic environment or treatment canter.  This would prevent many of these types of kids that you mentioned from getting into these places to begin with.

I'm pretty sure that my local daycare does not put kids in the "naughty dark room" for days, or tackle four-year-olds for "not getting honest." Give me a break.

Kids in daycare are much more vulnerable and modifying their behaviour requires a lot less extreme measures.  If you compare this to a teenager who has had years of behaving in a certain pattern this could be much harder to change.   Consider a child who has smoked cigarettes for a few days to an adult who has smoked for years.  Modifying the childs behaviour would be much easier and require minimal or more benign tactics.

And let's be reasonable with this success rate - let's say 30% of clients feel AARC was a positive experience after five years.

Actually it has been measured and it is 85%

What do you think the chances are that a kid might grow up and stop partying ON THEIR OWN after five years?

This has always been an interesting point and I tend to agree.  I think a parallel study would prove interesting results because I feel many kids do grow out of their adolescent behaviours.

Studies have shown that at least 80% of problem drinkers grow out of it as they grow up and mature.

I haven’t seen this study

But what AARC does, self-admittedly, is raise the bottom. They force kids to grow up a lot faster than they would, or should.

Yes, kids mature very quickly there and are a bit ahead of their peers when they graduate.

Essentially, AARC "helps" some kids become stronger and more mature in the same way Ike helped Tina become a strong woman. And for the same reason I'm sure Tina doesn't send thank you cards to Ike at Christmas, I will never thank AARC for the positive things I've done with my life since I was in that prison.

Well I think that is all a co-dependency thing and would NOT rely on Ike and Tina as a good analogy.

I can only imagine where I'd be today if I'd never realized what a scam AARC is. Judging by what I've seen from AARColytes, I'd most likely be working as a peer counselor, making fun of rape victims, and battling illiteracy.

I don’t know your particular circumstances but I think you would have done fine eventually either way.  With the exception of a very few most people come out of it sooner or later.  The problem is for the ones who come thru it “much” later or never at all.  If you are the type of person who makes fun of rape victims then you would be this way regardless of whether you entered a substance treatment program or not.  This type of behaviour was instilled at a very early age with you and needs to be addressed outside of an environment that these treatment centers provide.  As far as illiteracy goes it is never too late to learn to read. There are many resources available free of charge in most communities.

[Anonymous]

"There is no question that the methods used in AARC are harmful. They are derived from the attack therapy used in Synanon, and the replicated in the Seed, Straight Inc., and Kids. AARC also uses a peer group to confront, humiliate and coerce the individual to produce conformity. Studies of these methods have demonstrated a tendency to produce long-term psychological damage in the those subjected to the process. These techniques were used by both the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese to extract false confessions from American servicemen for use in propaganda campaigns. It's anybody's guess as to why they are being used in AARC.
1. The clients are not assessed by qualified personnel to diagnose the condition AARC claims to treat.
2. AARC appears to diagnose clients as suffering from addiction when they are not.
3. The Wiz and his staff are not qualified to perform the interventions used at AARC.
4. A variety of disorders present in AARC clients go untreated as the staff is incapable of addressing the needs of the clients.
5. The methods used in AARC are harmful.
6. There is no evidence as to the number of clients in AARC who remain abstinent after graduating AARC.
7. The program takes in a vast amount of money that does not correlate with the services provided by AARC.
8. The host home system used in AARC is dangerous, and puts clients at risk of an array of abuses.
9. The methods used at AARC do not conform to accepted standards of practise used by mental health professionals to treat mood disorders, and are thus experimental.
10. Clients at AARC are not informed that they are experimental subjects, and do not provide consent to be used as such.
11. The ongoing behaviour modification experiment at AARC is not conducted by practioners belonging to a professional body, thus the staff are not subject to any standard for professional ethics."

[Anonymous]

As a former cult member of AARC - I can personally attest for Mr. Vause' abuses and dictatorship style of running his prison.

I am a 2x survivor of that prison and can honestly say that today - by the grace of God that i am over 15 years sober and my life has never been better.

The way that it was when I was there was that it was to be done Dean's way and no other way was acceptable, just ask Jocelyn and the many other clinical staff that are no longer there, they all agree and I know as I maintained a relationship with Jocelyn after my time at AARC.

AARC has completely destroyed my family - it has severed every relationship that I had with my father or brothers outside of the rebuilding of my relationship with my brother that I am experiencing now.

AARC reminds me of Scientology - try and leave and your gonna have major problems. Out of all the clients I was in with, there is only 2 of them still sober - some success record. Some have ended up back at it and sobered up though attending AA meetings and they share the same feelings as I. The 2 still sober are absolutely of no value to society, they are so pretentious and ignorant it is just an embarrassment.

I have seen several families destroyed by this cult and MANY marriages ending up in divorce by the pressure tactics of this cult.

Good luck to those protesting the cult - take some pictures!

A Grateful Dad

[TheWho]

I was in AARC with a couple of people with genuine psychiatric disorders, and they are crazy as ever today. I'm sorry, but humiliation and thought reform techniques just aren't a cure for schizophrenia. It makes me really sad when I think of how many clients in AARC had underlying issues that were ignored while AARC staff berated them for being "loser druggies." For a while after AARC they played along - probably even convinced themselves that AARC had cured them and saved their lives. But when they fell, they fell hard - and who wouldn't after having it drilled it into your brain that you'll die and will never feel happiness again unless you devote your life to a cult and do everything they've taught you. Putting a kid in AARC for a year when they have a serious mental health disorder is like putting an AIDS patient through chemo. It's brutal, and in the end, they'll still have a serious untreated condition.

That is one of the underlying problems of any treatment Centre or therapeutic boarding school.  Kids should be seen by a local therapist prior to placement in a therapeutic environment or treatment canter.  This would prevent many of these types of kids that you mentioned from getting into these places to begin with.

I'm pretty sure that my local daycare does not put kids in the "naughty dark room" for days, or tackle four-year-olds for "not getting honest." Give me a break.

Kids in daycare are much more vulnerable and modifying their behaviour requires a lot less extreme measures.  If you compare this to a teenager who has had years of behaving in a certain pattern this could be much harder to change.   Consider a child who has smoked cigarettes for a few days to an adult who has smoked for years.  Modifying the childs behaviour would be much easier and require minimal or more benign tactics.

And let's be reasonable with this success rate - let's say 30% of clients feel AARC was a positive experience after five years.

Actually it has been measured and it is 85%

What do you think the chances are that a kid might grow up and stop partying ON THEIR OWN after five years?

This has always been an interesting point and I tend to agree.  I think a parallel study would prove interesting results because I feel many kids do grow out of their adolescent behaviours.

Studies have shown that at least 80% of problem drinkers grow out of it as they grow up and mature.

I haven’t seen this study

But what AARC does, self-admittedly, is raise the bottom. They force kids to grow up a lot faster than they would, or should.

Yes, kids mature very quickly there and are a bit ahead of their peers when they graduate.

Essentially, AARC "helps" some kids become stronger and more mature in the same way Ike helped Tina become a strong woman. And for the same reason I'm sure Tina doesn't send thank you cards to Ike at Christmas, I will never thank AARC for the positive things I've done with my life since I was in that prison.

Well I think that is all a co-dependency thing and would NOT rely on Ike and Tina as a good analogy.

I can only imagine where I'd be today if I'd never realized what a scam AARC is. Judging by what I've seen from AARColytes, I'd most likely be working as a peer counselor, making fun of rape victims, and battling illiteracy.

I don’t know your particular circumstances but I think you would have done fine eventually either way.  With the exception of a very few most people come out of it sooner or later.  The problem is for the ones who come thru it “much” later or never at all.  If you are the type of person who makes fun of rape victims then you would be this way regardless of whether you entered a substance treatment program or not.  This type of behaviour was instilled at a very early age with you and needs to be addressed outside of an environment that these treatment centers provide.  As far as illiteracy goes it is never too late to learn to read. There are many resources available free of charge in most communities.

I agree with most of what you say but I dont think that the guest was saying that they themself made fun of rape victims.

[Anonymous]

"There is no question that the methods used in AARC are harmful. They are derived from the attack therapy used in Synanon, and the replicated in the Seed, Straight Inc., and Kids. AARC also uses a peer group to confront, humiliate and coerce the individual to produce conformity. Studies of these methods have demonstrated a tendency to produce long-term psychological damage in the those subjected to the process. These techniques were used by both the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese to extract false confessions from American servicemen for use in propaganda campaigns. It's anybody's guess as to why they are being used in AARC.
1. The clients are not assessed by qualified personnel to diagnose the condition AARC claims to treat.
2. AARC appears to diagnose clients as suffering from addiction when they are not.
3. The Wiz and his staff are not qualified to perform the interventions used at AARC.
4. A variety of disorders present in AARC clients go untreated as the staff is incapable of addressing the needs of the clients.
5. The methods used in AARC are harmful.
6. There is no evidence as to the number of clients in AARC who remain abstinent after graduating AARC.
7. The program takes in a vast amount of money that does not correlate with the services provided by AARC.
8. The host home system used in AARC is dangerous, and puts clients at risk of an array of abuses.
9. The methods used at AARC do not conform to accepted standards of practise used by mental health professionals to treat mood disorders, and are thus experimental.
10. Clients at AARC are not informed that they are experimental subjects, and do not provide consent to be used as such.
11. The ongoing behaviour modification experiment at AARC is not conducted by practioners belonging to a professional body, thus the staff are not subject to any standard for professional ethics."
"There is no question that the methods used in AARC are harmful. They are derived from the attack therapy used in Synanon, and the replicated in the Seed, Straight Inc., and Kids. AARC also uses a peer group to confront, humiliate and coerce the individual to produce conformity. Studies of these methods have demonstrated a tendency to produce long-term psychological damage in the those subjected to the process. These techniques were used by both the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese to extract false confessions from American servicemen for use in propaganda campaigns. It's anybody's guess as to why they are being used in AARC.
1. The clients are not assessed by qualified personnel to diagnose the condition AARC claims to treat.
2. AARC appears to diagnose clients as suffering from addiction when they are not.
3. The Wiz and his staff are not qualified to perform the interventions used at AARC.
4. A variety of disorders present in AARC clients go untreated as the staff is incapable of addressing the needs of the clients.
5. The methods used in AARC are harmful.
6. There is no evidence as to the number of clients in AARC who remain abstinent after graduating AARC.
7. The program takes in a vast amount of money that does not correlate with the services provided by AARC.
8. The host home system used in AARC is dangerous, and puts clients at risk of an array of abuses.
9. The methods used at AARC do not conform to accepted standards of practise used by mental health professionals to treat mood disorders, and are thus experimental.
10. Clients at AARC are not informed that they are experimental subjects, and do not provide consent to be used as such.
11. The ongoing behaviour modification experiment at AARC is not conducted by practioners belonging to a professional body, thus the staff are not subject to any standard for professional ethics."

[TheWho]

I was in AARC with a couple of people with genuine psychiatric disorders, and they are crazy as ever today. I'm sorry, but humiliation and thought reform techniques just aren't a cure for schizophrenia. It makes me really sad when I think of how many clients in AARC had underlying issues that were ignored while AARC staff berated them for being "loser druggies." For a while after AARC they played along - probably even convinced themselves that AARC had cured them and saved their lives. But when they fell, they fell hard - and who wouldn't after having it drilled it into your brain that you'll die and will never feel happiness again unless you devote your life to a cult and do everything they've taught you. Putting a kid in AARC for a year when they have a serious mental health disorder is like putting an AIDS patient through chemo. It's brutal, and in the end, they'll still have a serious untreated condition.

That is one of the underlying problems of any treatment Centre or therapeutic boarding school.  Kids should be seen by a local therapist prior to placement in a therapeutic environment or treatment canter.  This would prevent many of these types of kids that you mentioned from getting into these places to begin with.

I'm pretty sure that my local daycare does not put kids in the "naughty dark room" for days, or tackle four-year-olds for "not getting honest." Give me a break.

Kids in daycare are much more vulnerable and modifying their behaviour requires a lot less extreme measures.  If you compare this to a teenager who has had years of behaving in a certain pattern this could be much harder to change.   Consider a child who has smoked cigarettes for a few days to an adult who has smoked for years.  Modifying the childs behaviour would be much easier and require minimal or more benign tactics.

And let's be reasonable with this success rate - let's say 30% of clients feel AARC was a positive experience after five years.

Actually it has been measured and it is 85%

What do you think the chances are that a kid might grow up and stop partying ON THEIR OWN after five years?

This has always been an interesting point and I tend to agree.  I think a parallel study would prove interesting results because I feel many kids do grow out of their adolescent behaviours.

Studies have shown that at least 80% of problem drinkers grow out of it as they grow up and mature.

I haven’t seen this study

But what AARC does, self-admittedly, is raise the bottom. They force kids to grow up a lot faster than they would, or should.

Yes, kids mature very quickly there and are a bit ahead of their peers when they graduate.

Essentially, AARC "helps" some kids become stronger and more mature in the same way Ike helped Tina become a strong woman. And for the same reason I'm sure Tina doesn't send thank you cards to Ike at Christmas, I will never thank AARC for the positive things I've done with my life since I was in that prison.

Well I think that is all a co-dependency thing and would NOT rely on Ike and Tina as a good analogy.

I can only imagine where I'd be today if I'd never realized what a scam AARC is. Judging by what I've seen from AARColytes, I'd most likely be working as a peer counselor, making fun of rape victims, and battling illiteracy.

I don’t know your particular circumstances but I think you would have done fine eventually either way.  With the exception of a very few most people come out of it sooner or later.  The problem is for the ones who come thru it “much” later or never at all.  If you are the type of person who makes fun of rape victims then you would be this way regardless of whether you entered a substance treatment program or not.  This type of behaviour was instilled at a very early age with you and needs to be addressed outside of an environment that these treatment centers provide.  As far as illiteracy goes it is never too late to learn to read. There are many resources available free of charge in most communities.

In the first paragraph you mentioned the child should be seen by a therapist before going to AARC.  Well I think AARC should be responsible for the kids also and should be able to recognize if the child has a mental illness.

[Anonymous]

Exactly. That is a perfect example of why debating on this forum feels a little like trying to convince a 3-year-old that Santa Claus does not exist. Sometimes I almost feel guilty for trying to burst your bubble when you'd obviously rather live in your fantasy world of ignorant bliss. You actually think that's a plausible argument? That it's not the treatment centre's fault for misdiagnosing the patients it coerces, I mean... admits because they should see professionals first to make that call? Shouldn't somebody who is apparently capable of treating patients be capable of assessing them accurately?

[Anonymous]

Relax, someone is yanking your chain and feeding you a bunch of bull. The program is harmless, your local daycare uses behavior techniques which are much worse.
Again take a look at their success rate and their bottom line costs are much lower than any inpatient setting for the same time period of time. They have done very well with the kids who finish up at AARC.

Bradford - did they pay you to say this? Oh never mind, you're probably one of those people who "Believe 150% in everything Vause says, would never question anything and support him/AARC for the rest of your life".

Jim Jones had such dedicated followers. So does that Ron Hubbard guy.

I was in AARC, AARC hurts people, destroys all sense of trust and belief in themselves. AARC tears families apart and drives a permanent wedge in family relationships.

AARC has no verifiable success rate, all they have is an INTERNAL hand picked, not to mention highly inaccurate, study that they completed themselves and then sent the data to Hazeldon so they could forever claim it was "someone else's study".

You've got one thing right. With all the donations and the use (abuse) of parental resources including the joke called "recovery homes" AARC's bottom line is extremely low compared to the MILLIONS they rake in in revenue and donations.

So since you know so much about AARC, tell me, where does the money go?

See ya on the next fishing trip buddy, or at a Broncos game or maybe off in the Caymans.

[Anonymous]

If you are the type of person who makes fun of rape victims then you would be this way regardless of whether you entered a substance treatment program or not. This type of behaviour was instilled at a very early age with you and needs to be addressed outside of an environment that these treatment centers provide.

Yeah, and AARC sends newcomers home with these same people and instruct the parents to stay out of whatever happens.

Good plan

[Anonymous]

If I donated money to AARC, shouldn't I be on the invite list to go to Shearwater with the rest of the gang on AARC's (my) tab??? (Even as a no-way-in-hell donor, I still pay taxes in this province so I'm funding this cult either way...)

I guess I'm just not important enough...  

I'd like to know exactly what degree the NHL/WHL is involved with this 'treatment centre'.  Isn't Allan Markin an owner of the Flames?  And the wiz's son plays in the WHL.  And Kelly Hrudey is kind enough to plug the Wonderful Wizard of Vause on HNIC.  Maybe the Broncos connection isn't so implausible.

Many of the donors are companies that are wholly run or largely controlled by parents who have been through the program.  But there are a couple who won't send their addicted family members through the program.  Instead it seems AARC is paying for them to be treated elsewhere.  Not so much faith in the cause there, hey?  And why is AARC footing the bill for that anyway?  Or is that a condition of donation?

On the 80 or 85% success rate?  Why is this even still being debated after Patton himself has said he did not do the research behind this study.  He only crunched the data that were given to him by their own 'internal' researchers -- AARC grads.  Does this success rate include the many people who return (some immediately following graduation) for 'refreshers'?  I guarantee you that 85% of their grads aren't sober, let alone 85% of the entire client list (which includes those who left the program).  Of those who did not complete treatment, I would like to know the success rate for them, considering AARC repeatedly states that their grads' lives are saved by AARC and they would surely be deadinsaneorinjail if they don't finish.  

There ought to be a lot of ex-clients who didn't finish the program in the mental institutions, graveyards, and prisons.  All of them, in fact, should be in one of those places if we accept AARC's claims as gospel.

I think the reality is that many AARC grads end up deadinsaneorinjail...  In fact, the statistics are more verifiable than AARC's 80% success rate.

[Anonymous]

Many of the donors are companies that are wholly run or largely controlled by parents who have been through the program. But there are a couple who won't send their addicted family members through the program. Instead it seems AARC is paying for them to be treated elsewhere. Not so much faith in the cause there, hey? And why is AARC footing the bill for that anyway? Or is that a condition of donation?

Could you elaborate on this, please?

[TheWho]

Night Fisher wrote:

I donated money to AARC, shouldn't I be on the invite list to go to Shearwater with the rest of the gang on AARC's (my) tab??? (Even as a no-way-in-hell donor, I still pay taxes in this province so I'm funding this cult either way...)

I guess I'm just not important enough...

I'd like to know exactly what degree the NHL/WHL is involved with this 'treatment centre'. Isn't Allan Markin an owner of the Flames? And the wiz's son plays in the WHL. And Kelly Hrudey is kind enough to plug the Wonderful Wizard of Vause on HNIC. Maybe the Broncos connection isn't so implausible.

Many of the donors are companies that are wholly run or largely controlled by parents who have been through the program. But there are a couple who won't send their addicted family members through the program. Instead it seems AARC is paying for them to be treated elsewhere. Not so much faith in the cause there, hey? And why is AARC footing the bill for that anyway? Or is that a condition of donation?

Only the top donors get the attention.  If the rep from Rolex has a kid who wants to go to a different place and it costs $100,000 a year and Rolex is donating $80,000 a year it is a wise move to pay for this kids expenses even if they are not going to AARC.  Rolex is going to be around long after this kid gets thru where ever he/she is going.  The key is to keep the donations coming each year.
If you are donating $10 you will be lucky to get a thank you note.  But I think everyone understands this.

On the 80 or 85% success rate? Why is this even still being debated after Patton himself has said he did not do the research behind this study. He only crunched the data that were given to him by their own 'internal' researchers -- AARC grads.

There shouldn’t be any debate.  Patton was hired to crunch the numbers and oversee the writing of the report.  Every internal study is just that, internal.  An independent study would be better but many places just cant afford it so they hire professionals to oversee their own study to add credibility.  This is not uncommon.

Does this success rate include the many people who return (some immediately following graduation) for 'refreshers'?

They used consecutive graduates.  If they returned then, yes, they were included.

I guarantee you that 85% of their grads aren't sober, let alone 85% of the entire client list (which includes those who left the program). Of those who did not complete treatment, I would like to know the success rate for them, considering AARC repeatedly states that their grads' lives are saved by AARC and they would surely be deadinsaneorinjail if they don't finish.

If they left the program how could they be considered graduates?

There ought to be a lot of ex-clients who didn't finish the program in the mental institutions, graveyards, and prisons. All of them, in fact, should be in one of those places if we accept AARC's claims as gospel.

Agreed, especially if they did not complete the program.  This would be an interesting statistic.

I think the reality is that many AARC grads end up deadinsaneorinjail... In fact, the statistics are more verifiable than AARC's 80% success rate.

I would like to see those stats.  What we have today is that 85% are sober after 4 years or more.  If the kids that dropped out or failed to complete the program ended up dead insane or in jail that would really say alot.  Maybe the next study will try to focus on these kids.

[Anonymous]

"There is no question that the methods used in AARC are harmful. They are derived from the attack therapy used in Synanon, and then replicated in the Seed, Straight Inc., and Kids. AARC also uses a peer group to confront, humiliate and coerce the individual to produce conformity. Studies of these methods have demonstrated a tendency to produce long-term psychological damage in the those subjected to the process. These techniques were used by both the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese to extract false confessions from American servicemen for use in propaganda campaigns. It's anybody's guess as to why they are being used in AARC.
1. The clients are not assessed by qualified personnel to diagnose the condition AARC claims to treat.
2. AARC appears to diagnose clients as suffering from addiction when they are not.
3. The Wiz and his staff are not qualified to perform the interventions used at AARC.
4. A variety of disorders present in AARC clients go untreated as the staff is incapable of addressing the needs of the clients.
5. The methods used in AARC are harmful.
6. There is no evidence as to the number of clients in AARC who remain abstinent after graduating AARC.
7. The program takes in a vast amount of money that does not correlate with the services provided by AARC.
8. The host home system used in AARC is dangerous, and puts clients at risk of an array of abuses.
9. The methods used at AARC do not conform to accepted standards of practise used by mental health professionals to treat mood disorders, and are thus experimental.
10. Clients at AARC are not informed that they are experimental subjects, and do not provide consent to be used as such.
11. The ongoing behaviour modification experiment at AARC is not conducted by practioners belonging to a professional body, thus the staff are not subject to any standard for professional ethics."

[TheWho]

Yes, but 85% of the graduates are still doing well after 4 years.  AA is lucky to see 5% if any success at all.  The choice is fairly simple. The Wiz can show you the way or you can try to go it alone or with AA.