Why was sexual abuse mentioned in the opening paragraph but no examples cited in the body of the story? You cited examples of the other allegations. It seems to me that emotional and physical abuse isn't juicy enough so you just toss in sexual abuse.

There have been reports of thousands of deaths and abuse in group facilities which we call "schools". At one particular "school" in Virginia, a student was so abused and humiliated that he killed 32 of his fellow "school" attenders. At one particular Colorado "school", a teacher engaged in sex with a student there. At one particular Beverly Hills school, a girl was taunted so much by other girls about her sartorial choices that she had "the worst day EVER!". We should close all these "schools" and "universities". That should solve the problem. :)

camps for delinquents run by delinquents. who do the children have to turn to if not the adults?

Unfortunately, this is nothing new. Since the 1970's, there have been many documented cases of these tough "love" groups abusing children and teenagers. Some warning signs that a camp or rehab is abusive: If they encourage you to lie to get your kids to one of these programs; if your kid is not free to communicate with you regularly; if any permitted communication between your child and you is screened or monitored by the staff; if the goals of the program are not clearly understandable; or if your son or daughter does not see a licensed therapist regularly while in the program. Most importantly, if you love your son or daughter, and you have a bad feeling about a group: listen to your instincts. No number of warning signs is going to be enough if you allow the staff of a group to convince you to ignore your instincts.

Yes, I have a comment. How about these parents try PARENTING, instead of paying someone else to supposedly straighten out the child that they failed at? They allowed their child to become out of control, then expect these crackpot tough love camp people to fix it. Typical. Throw money at it and wash your hands, let someone else fix it. I'm disgusted. If your child is suicidal, they need psychological therapy...not boot camp.

Brian, I just had my son sent to a Wilderness program in Utah. How can I find out if they have had any reports against them?

Jayson,
To get more info on sex abuse of teens in these "tough love" places, check out Maia Szalavitz's book "Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids." This important issue needs to be reported on much more, and this industry regulated. Nail salons have more gov't oversight than these places where people just dump their difficult teens.

Why is there not more oversight by the states regarding these so-called camps even if they are privately owned? Surely they need licensed by the states. They sound like traps to me, run by sadistic personnel who found the perfect outlet for their perversions. Either they should be strictly supervised or shut down. How is this country allowing these places to abuse and murder our young people? Isn't there enough of that going on without those parents being duped into paying for their kids to be abused and murdered? What is this country coming to when we can't even protect our young people?

I can't believe these parents are blaming everyone else???? Yes, I agree try being a PARENT and not a friend to your children. A lot of these kids had medical issues before going to these camps and then they close the schools down. My opinion is these type of schools should NOT even exist. They should be called I failed as a parent and now it is someone else turn.....Oh and don't blame me if something goes wrong..

I have a few things to say. I have been working in this industry since 88. there are bad programs and good programs. I worked for a bad program early on and they were shut down. I worked for them because someone sane had to. it started out good and as the good people left it got bad.

Our daughter completed 2 sessions (6 weeks this summer) in a wilderness program and is now enrolled in a therapeutic boarding school and doing well. It was a wonderful experience for her and for us. We didn't want to send her and, of course, she didn't want to go. We had no choice and neither do hundreds of parents who have tried everything else (yes, even parenting) and just want their child to stay alive. It's a tough subject; a tough decision.

Don't send your kids to these places. Raise them yourself and quit expecting other to do your job. If you don't know how to raise kids, don't have them.

I am the mother of one these boys and for someone like Sharon who has not had
to deal with this they should not be so judgemental. My son's father and myself have tried everything to get him help and yes he has had difficulty from the time he was 2 years old to 16. There were peaks were he was well behaved then there were times were he was a holy terror. We love our son and want what is best for him and I would rather see my son who seems to be at a great facility then at prison or jail. WE have tried to be good parents to him and love him dearly yes I would rather have home with us. It easy to say what you would do when you do not have to make that choice.

I never have had good feelings about these camps. There is just something wrong with the idea that if you take a misbehaving kid and bully him enough, that will somehow make him into a "man" (or a "woman", for that matter.) Bully a bully, and you simply train him or her how to be a more successful bully. But let full-grown adults bully a mis-diagnosed, actually compliant but deeply insecure child, and you may well kill him. Actual military boot camps involve concerted bullying for the specific purpose of forging a cohesive military force: the ultimate bullying machine. But any way you look at it, it is all still bullying.

My daughter was diagnosed w/depression at age 11. We began therapy and medications and never stopped trying to help her. We contiuned to do our very best even after a suicide attempt. When she began self-medicating w/illegal drugs, alcohol and 2 episodes of running away overnight, we found out about the Catherine Freer Wilderness Progam in Oregon.(she was 16) After 6 weeks in the progam she is now in a wonderful theraputic prepatory school in Idaho. A few weeks ago we recieved a letter from her thanking us for sending her to the wilderness and to the school she is at now. She said she is finally happy and cannot imagine where she would be now had we not done what we did. I am so sorry for the families who lost their children, but must give hope to others who may be saved like our daughter has been thanks to these programs.
One note to "Skeptical" and "Ron": I would love to hear your recipe for "perfect parenting".May you never have to walk in the shoes my husband and I had to walk in this past year.

Even the best of these programs are in it to make money. Making money and taking care of kids is antithetical. They wind up merely being warehouses for kids. And, to warehouse them at the cheapest price, they use brainwashing techniques reminiscent of the Korean War era to make the kids docile and more easily warehoused. They pitch a good story to the parents so they can suck the money out of their pockets. Most of the people operating therapeutic boarding schools should be put in jail for physical and emotional child abuse.

These stories are so sad. There is an alternative. I was sent to a wilderness program at the age of 14. It was not a boot camp, but a 3 week wilderness survival program. Things I learned there I still use in my life today at 36 years old. Anyone considering a boot camp or a tough love program might consider the program I went through. Many years ago when I was there, it was called School of Urban and Wilderness Survival. The instructors were wonderful, patients "teachers" who truly wanted to help. I checked out the

is anyone accredited in anything at these things? like license psychiatrists? doctors? educators? counselors? it seems like a group of adults looking for a lucrative business with no supervision from anyone has found it. open up one of these, build cabins, have few accomodations (to build character), the most basic food staples..nothing expensive, the kids do all the chores (to build character) and make a killing in "tuition" and scream at the kids into submission and ignore them when they are really in pain or ill health.

Why is this just comming out. I was a ward of the state for 6 years and have witnessed things to make any human hair stand that goes on in the boot camps and the State run himes. The thing they do is hush it right up and close down the facility. I was a troubled rebellious teenage who really just needed some positive people in my life and went a little wild and was turned into the custody of DFY what a joke I know girls who have deep mental and physical scars that to this day have never healed. I have seen childrn being kicked in their heads, hit, humilated, tortured, spit on, made to sit in a corner for months on end, handcuffed, starved, not taken to the doctors, you name it I saw it and it will be with me the rest of my life as if it was yesterday. This is sad and the sad thing is everyone can read about it everyone can be angry but IT NEVER CHANGES. I was lucky in the fact I had parents who cared I just did not did I mention I went in as a young juvenile pins and left a convict? I got my life back on track and went on the right path that the state could of easily put me on but failed as my care taker. What a joke but the joke is on them I remember everything names places incidents you name it I remember. They would send in investigators and we were to scared to talk and the investigators later told us they knew. Your tax money is helping abuse these children who will one day be your neighbor, friend, son in law, daughter in law, you all should be ashames we are running a system like a 3rd world country!Parent I knwo there is tough love but be really careful and listen to your children and for the children who do not have parents write, write to everyone and anyone and then come back on them and point your finger becuase they knew and did not care!

I have to agree with those who say raise your children yourself. Good parenting starts at Day One, and if that does not actually work on your child, then it is likely they have a problem that "boot camp" can't solve. There's nothing they can do for your child that you cannot. Children are not "one size fits all" and half the time, if you notice, the deaths and incidents resulted from the counselors at these camps thinking they knew it all, that the kid was just lying/sandbagging/etc. They were not, in other words, listening. If you truly did the right thing as a parent, then the only condition that should cause your child to be uncontrollable is something chemical or deeply psychological, in which case you need a psychiatrist or a doctor, not some nutter who never achieved his dream of becoming a marine drill sergeant.

Paula C said :"One note to "Skeptical" and "Ron": I would love to hear your recipe for "perfect parenting".May you never have to walk in the shoes my husband and I had to walk in this past year."

For the record, Paula, I think you misread the name on the post you're responding to. My post was the one above it talking about how to spot a bad group. My personal view is that in many cases, the parents are also victims of these places, although in a less immediate way. What makes these groups dispicable is that they use a family's pain against them. -Skeptimal

Im currently looking for a program for my 16yr old brother-in-law, he's not my child but I care about him, and I would rather see him in a good program, rather than locked up or dead. Does anyone know of any good programs in the Maryland/DC area?

A few kids were killed today at a regular high school in Cleveland. Is there a movement to shut the school down? No Why not? Because the intention of the school is not to kill kids. This is simply an unfortunate incident that happens because of the danger present in the larger society. The intention of the school is to teach. People have to understand the practical aspect of these "boot camps". The boot camps do not exist to abuse kids. They exist to subject kids with behavioral problems to increased stress in a controlled environment. The hope is that misbehaving children will develop the skills and discipline to survive stressful situations and react appropriately. The intention is to provide a simplistic structure where trust of authority is rewarded and rebellion or self-expression is met with stressful resistance. The boot camps are not colleges or trade schools. They do not teach kids to think or allow them to grow emotionally. The boot camps are places of last resort. They are places where self-destructive behaviors can be vigorously challenged and ideally eliminated. There are scores and scores of success stories attributed to boot camps. Parents of these children who died in boot camps have every right and reason to question how and why their son or daughter died. However, aside from holding individual counselors accountable, these parents have no other recourse than the parents of the children who were killed in Cleveland. Sometimes tragedies happen. We do not close schools when they do happen. I believe that we should not close boot camps either.

This is no surprise to me. I knew a kid who was sent to one of these camps by his parents and he ended up dead just 3 days later. The people at the camp, former NAVY SEALS, beat him to death with his own shoes. They said they were trying to teach him "respect". How do you teach someone respect by beating this crap out of them? I don't get it. I chewed his parents out at the funeral, I blamed them for his death then and I still do today. But I also blame the laws of this country that have made it impossible for parents to disipline their own children. When I was a kid, if I did something stupid I got my little butt spanked big time. I'll tell you now that I learned something from that. Nowadays, if a parent lays a hand on their kid they end up in jail and lose everything they have. This country is going to Hell in a handbasket, and not one of you people out there is doing a damn thing about it. Think about that for a while.

There is apparently a big difference between boot camps and therapeutic wilderness programs run by licensed professionals. Our daughter benefitted greatly from the latter. To those of you out there questioning the parenting skills of people whom you have never met, I offer the following: Don't you have anything better to do than spewing reactionary rhetoric on subjects you know nothing about? I think I know the answer.

Those of you telling us to "raise our own children" have obviously never had a child who is-to put it mildly-difficult. My son had problems with authority from the time he was 2 years old. We took him to counselors for years. He didn't listen at home or at school. We tried different forms of punishment but nothing worked. We had 3 other children in the home that he became violent with at the drop of a hat. We sent him to a facility in our state and he manipulated the system. He ended up going to 6 different juvenile facilities before he was 18. He is now in prison in Missouri, serving time for burglary. I'm sure that this will not be his only stint in prison. He never received the help he needed and it had nothing to do with our parenting skills. We have 3 other children who excel in school and life. So maybe people shouldn't judge too harshly until they've walked in our shoes.

As a student who has gone through several "wilderness" programs, I can say I have never heard of this kind of stuff. I would say these are exceptions by poorly run camps. It should be understood that being out of civilization has certain risks and just like going into the ocean you are assuming those risks by engaging in the activity. Stick with well known, well established organizations( Children of the Earth Foundation, Tom Brown jr.'s Tracker School, Outward bound) you will have a great adventure.
Skeptimal, I have been taught in some of my classes by a man named Bill . He is a wonderful man. He is in Maryland and DC area for inner city kids in the area. Look up the organization see if that is what is you are looking for. If you are willing to go into southern NJ, there is the Coyote Tracks program which I took and I can't reccomend highly enough. Infact, I plan on volunteering or interning there next summer in order to give back some of what they have given me.

Whether we're talking about a boot camp, a wilderness therapy program or a behavior modification boarding school, there is one fact they all share: there is no clinical evidence that the therapeutic methods these programs use do any good at all. But there is an increasing body of anecdotal evidence that they can do great harm.

Sharon,
in regards to your comment on the parents trying to "act like parents" to solve the behavioural problems of a delinquent adolescent I have different perspective to offer. While you may have been the model child and perhaps a model parent whose children would never dream of defying you, this is not always the case. There are some children who, by no fault of the parent, cannot be reached by conventional means. There are plenty of situations where a child is rebellious to the point where they put themselves into harms way, and no matter what restrictions the parent's put upon the chid, no matter the dicipline used, they cannot reach their child--these same parents use the same methods on their other children and they haven't the same problems as the rebellious one. Everyone, including teenagers, is different and though some may think it is the case, teenagers cannot be trained like dogs to obey.
So before you cast such distain upon those parents who have exhausted all other methods and seek to try less conventional "boot camps" to save their child, remember that while your theory is beautiful one, it is not accurate.
These events at these tough love boot camps described are terrible, yes, but for those programs out there that have the qualified staff and responsible ways of dealing with these troubled teens, they are sometimes the only thing that can save an adolescent who cannot be reached by other methods.

This isn't new news. I was in a military academy between the ages of 7 and 13. I saw and experienced "alot" I hope no one ever goes though. My story is much longer than anyone has time or patience to read, here. Fast forward 45 years. I'm a husband, father of an emotionally disabled child, Viet Nam Vet, college grad several times over, retired althlete, and current HS teacher. I don't remember who started this bru-ha-ha. But the fact of the matter is parents have to be concerned, informed, and down-to-earth about what's right and good for THEIR kids. The government, the press, and even your relatives cannot and should not decide what's best for an out-of-control child. I pulled myself out of a downward trend. I didn't sue anyone. I sought professional help, and I complained and cried alot. But eventually I became a success. Wena; your'e right. No one should judge and no one can predict!
Some might say: "it's in the hands of the stars". I think it's in the hands, head, and heart of the person.

To the Dad who would give anything in the world to not have taken his daughter to that place- this has to be one of the very worst feelings that any parent can have- may God help you to get through this horrible time. He would not have wanted anything to happen to your daughter and He would not want you to spend the rest of your life hating yourself for what happened. I know it is hard to believe He can make a difference in your heart and bring healing out of this but He can. PARENTING IS NOT FOR COWARDS IT CAN BE SO HARD SOMETIMES ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE OF US WITH DIFFICULT KIDS AND YEARS OF PAINFUL CIRCUMSTANCES. may God bless,help and heal you. you are in the prayers of many.

I am an outdoor educator who takes children on outdoor adventures for 2 weeks at a time. Living in the wilderness entails each person to be responsible for all of their belongings. The counselors carry much more than their own weight in materials to begin with and to ask them to carry the weight of the campers as well is literally impossible.
I believe that the parents should be held just as accountable in these situations seeing that those parents should have done their own research into the types of activities that their children will be in because living outdoors isn't a game it is serious and you must be aware of the risks.
By law, I, nor any other counselor can force a child to drink water so if they refuse, the only option I have is to send them home, and if I am out in the wilderness for weeks at a time, that option is much more difficult than one would imagine.

The article is very misleading. "...has found evidence of hundreds, if not thousands, of allegations of death and physical, sexual and emotional abuse."

Really thousands dead? This was the same open ended misleading type of comments the GAO put out.

If this is a business (which I would assume there are much easier ways to make a buck in the USA), I think it is much better left that way. At least there will remain a natural competition to deliver the very best service. The alternative is to hand it over to the Government who happens to have a terrible track record of "correctional insinuation's."

Further, I would imagine that their are many more satisfied families out there than what has been presented, otherwise this industry would have never gotten off the ground or made it this far anyway.

One sided reporting Brian Ross style...

I am still in the middle of the struggle with my 17 yr old who is currently in a theraputic hospital. However, in desperation at 14 yrs old we did send her to a "boot camp" facility in Montana. We found out a young girl also died at this faciity right before we left our daughter in this totally out of the way place in the mountains. After less than 90 days there, we were asked to come and get her because she was "too difficult". However, we were still on the hook for a year's worth of treatment that we still owe approximately $15K. I am curious if Mr. Ross's investigation involved any of the financial burden parents place themselves with these facilities. This is in addition to all the other treatment we are continuing to try to pay for. I will pay it. Whatever it takes to get help for my child. BUT, I strongly resent the implication that we are somehow shirking our responsibiity as parents to have sent her to this facility. We were desperate for help with an out of control child. And yes, we have 2 other children that did not go through any of these struggles.

This is sick. Any person who would do this crap to children and teens is apparently sick in the head. I am soo sorry for the parents and i personally think each of the people in charge of these camps should have a life sentence to jail. Children are what makes society grow and if we turn them into depressed suicidal people are future is dim indeed.

The reason why there are no viable examples of sexual abuse is because it is nearly impossible to prove, a lot of girls don't mention it until years later, a lot of boys never mention it at all. The first poster needs to get a clue.

Just like looking for a doctor, you can not go bargain shopping with wilderness programs. I ask Brian Ross to look into the reputable programs that are being run by several groups. Parents must take the advice of professionals and ask them for a referral to one of these wilderness programs. My husband and I sent our oldest daughter into a wilderness program last February. As the weeks passed, the letters became progressively better. She talked of the inner peace she was coming to find learning to rely on herself and get away from the bad choices she had made at home. It is naive to say parents are responsible for raising their chidren and making the hard choices. I beg to say that no parent who has placed their child in a wilderness program has not made the hardest choice of their life. Maybe they should have continued on the destructive path until the child became incarcerated and a tax burdeon to society? Our daughter spent 7 weeks in the widerness and came out the child we had known 4 years prior to wilderness. She was ready to go on to the next step for her which was emotional growth boarding school. She is looking forward to returning to her wilderness program to visit her therapist who still keeps in touch with me. She is doing college prep work, succeeding in school, and looking forward to college next year. Best of all she loves being with her family! Is she perfect? No, she's just not destroying herself and her life anymore.
When looking for a program, ask these things:
1. How much does it cost? A reputable facility charges $400-500 a day.
2. Ask for the name and qualifications of the therapists on staff.
3. Do they offer weekly family therapy and weekly conference calls with your child's therapist?
4. Ask specifics about what sort of expectations they place on their students? Are they pressured to perform tasks?
5. What are they being fed on the outings? Our program found a suitable protein for our daughter since she didn't like their choices.
6. What are the sleep arrangements?
7. What are the medical limitations of a program? (No program we researched would take a aptient that was a suicide risk)
8. What is the goal for you child at the end of the program? Not one reputable program we researched said they were a cure all. They all said this was step one. We knew we were going to have to continue in some sort of therapeutic school. And no, they were not asking us to go to a school from their parent company.
9. Educate yourself. Weigh out the options. SPEAK to parents who have sent their chidren through a program.
10. Make sure instructors on the trail have emergency communication devices at all times.
11. If you feel like the place you've gone to isn't right for your child, leave and find someplace else. Upon delivering out daughter, my husband said he could immediately tell she was in good hands. How? The staff that we corresponded with 2-4 times weeky came topersonally welcome him. They wanted him to know that they were accessible for our calls at ALL times.
Again, I encourage Brian Ross to contact me and my husband. We'll be happy to do the article on ABC which helps parent learn how to pick a good program. This would have been very informative in addition to this piece. I hope the information above can help some poor parents faced with one of the most diificult choices.

these programs should be ashamed of themselves... they have been entrusted with the lives of children and have acted with gross neglect

Then lawmakers should free parents to discipline their children without the threat of being brought up on "abuse" charges by the kids and backed by the "authorities" like it was prior to the mid-1980s! Disipline begins at the home, even occasional "corporal punishment". Most of us "boomers" got our dose, and the majority of us are very stable and humane.

As tragic as the deaths were, there are many good quality programs out there who have had NO deaths and have done a lot of good for these kids. The good programs are not punitive, but are instead therapeutic. Sometimes the alternative to these type of programs is incarceration. Does anyone think that is a better option? How many kids that are incarcerated have been sexually assaulted and killed in jail? To close these programs is a knee jerk reaction. Regulate them, certainly, and close the poor ones, but keep the good ones open to keep helping parents and their kids.

I was a lucky child that grew up in a good environment. My parents were not strict but at the same time were not too lenient. I ahve made my mistakes in life like everyone else. I got into smoking drugs heavily, tried other drugs but did not get addicted to or even wanted to use them more often. I also got into drinking alcohol a lot. To this day I still smoke cigarettes, marijuana and drink a fair amount of beer. My point behind all this is that my parents in my opinion did a great job of raising me. The bad habits I have formed and any stupid things I did as a teenager were all my doing. My parents didn't have a choice of what I did behind their backs. They don't like my habits now or ever had, but I have made sure that they are aware it was not their fault. I take total responsibility (unlike convicts that try to blame everyone else, including their parents for their mistakes). I have raised 2 children that do not have drug or alcohol issues and are now working and starting their own families.
Some times a kid is just out of control and it is noones fault but the kids.

Personally, I feel that basically these boot camps help alot of teens and their families in crisis. It's a shame that there are camps who employee abusive people. There should be strict quidelines for these camps. Our goverment not only needs to regulate these camps like daycares,drug test employees at hire and at random, run background checks on ALL employees, even the cooks and janitorial staff. They should be required to have certified training every year or two.

i think that kids will go agaist their parents because they want to be rebels... i think that some parents need the time for themselfs tohave time instead of always being worried if their kid is doing somehtin stupid.

I have been working as a wilderness therapy guide for two years and for several companies now. This article unfortunately lumps wilderness therapy programs together with boot camp when there are VAST differences. Made to eat own vomit!? Not allowed to eat!? Made to brush teeth with same toothbrush they cleaned a toilet out with!? Surely these are atrocities that should be dealt with and don't come anywhere close to what I have seen in my experience. In my experience I have been trained by and work with some of the best people that I know. Safety always comes first to mind in any situation. The people I work with are some of the kindest most compassionate and inspired people I know who bend over backwards for these kids to provide for them a safe wilderness experience. I along with many other staff put our hearts and souls into our work and into your children because we've seen our efforts inspire young people to change their lives. I love my job because I know that what I do makes a difference.

As someone who has worked in the industry for several years there is a key ingredient missing to all of the articles and reports I have read. For those that are seeking information about programs or need to place their child in a program or school, Educational Consultants or Interventionists are excellent resources. Of course, some are better than others, but if you do your research many of these professionals can steer your towards a reputable program for your son or daughter.

To all of you whose comments are "be a better parent"...God help you if you are ever in my shoes. I have two wonderful boys. One is a successful 3rd year University student. One is a very talented 17 year old who decided to "run away" and "try" drugs this summer. After almost loosing him, we decided to send him to camp. He hates it and it was the hardest decision we ever made, but he is not in jail, is healthy and is talking about college. All programs are not horrific. And we are not incompetent parents. It is a combination of many things.....
Remember that saying...."but for the grace of God there go I......." and pray that this never happens in your family.
Hard work and excellent parenting are no guarentees....

'Tough love' is a euphenism for punishment. Boot camps are aggressive and promote lasting aggression in 'patients.' Punishment arrests a behavior but teaches nothing. Punishment alone strengthens resistance and the targeted behavior. The 'get tough on crime', w's war mongering, anti-abortion laws, and the GOP's prison building make their supporters feel smug and tough but siumply do not work. Education and reward modify behavior. It's amazing how backwards the US has become.

Tough love is NOT a euphemism for punishment, it is a term that describes a love that has standards instead of a mushy, confused psuedo-love that thinks giving in and rolling over are what is needed. It is true that punishment alone is counter-productive but discipline, imposition of standards, insistence upon adherence to rules, etc. does not constitute "punishment". A poster says, " It's amazing how backwards the US has become." Backwards movement implies a retreat from a previous position of from the position of someone else who is ahead. If the US is moving away from a previously held more advanced position, ask yourself, what was America like a few decades ago? Or in what countries will we find the enlightened approach working well so we can emulate it and achieve their results? Having had 2 of my own three children prove VERY challenging and having seen quite a bit in my 60 years, I have concluded that mankind has always been full of trouble but that a society that disregards morality, self-control, respect for authority (parental & other), and a reverence for the value of life, will move farther and farther away from a civil society and nearer and nearer to an anarchistic and chaotic society in which the most vulnerable members (the young) become the most dangerous to themselves and others. Tough Love Boot Camps are simply an expression of the desperate need that exists to solve the tragic problems many of our children face growing up in a world of increasingly fewer boundaries, fewer reliable guideposts, and fewer reasons to live.

I had no Idea that there were such atrocious things happening in these types of programs in America. What a sad way to die. No one should die alone and with no one who cares especially not a child.

I have been looking into bootcamo recently for my 13 yr old but I cant afford it. I desperately need to find a way to help him. Yes I have tried everything , counseling , therapy, medication, acupuncture, whipping his butt!!. I feel so helpless and alone I cant even help my own child. Of course its always the parents fault!!!I dont want to wait until he is expelled from school, in juvy, or a ward of the court.Does anybody out there know of any programs or suggestions that might help.?

For hopeless: To find help for your child I would recommend finding an educational consultant or going online and doing some thorough research.
Someone stated that there is no evidence that these forms of therapy are effective- In the past 10 years there as been a great deal of research that has found tremendous positive gains from strenght-based (focussed on success)wilderness therapy programs. The University of Idaho has a good collection of research paper on this subject.

Does anybody have information about Still water Acadamy in Utah. My sister sent her son away there now going on 1 1/2 years. He went when he was 14. She says he is improving through these phases, but falls back often. He will not be home this Christmas either and all of us are worried. Thanks

Why would anyone willingly send their child to a program in a state like Utah who has a history of child fatalities caused by negligence and/or gross child endangerment? Wake up parents! This industry preys on desperate parents who have lost control of their child's attitude and behavior. Look for community based services like family therapy and disregard what programs and their sales agents tell you to SELL YOU on handing over your kid to them. Did you know many programs pay a finder's fee for kids? That is extremely unethical! ISAC is a watchdog group that maintains am excellent WATCHLIST of programs and Referrer Agents.

Catherine Freer Wilderness Program and other therapeutic wilderness programs do not deserve to be lumped in with the boot camp or military programs that are prone to such negative publicity. The broken branch that took the life of the young boy and the congenital heart defect in the young girl are both examples of horribly tragic losses yet I must say, unpredictable events. These programs are not risk free. It is of course important to weigh the risk vs. potential benefits. Erica’s death is deeply disturbing and I am glad that investigations were made into this tragic loss but it still doesn’t tell the whole story of what these programs can be and more often that not are. That is, that they help families. With this in mind I can tell you that after 11 months in the Freer program – three on the initial trek, 4 weeks in extended program and then 6 months in follow up program at Santiam Crossing, my stepson came away with a new appreciation for the value of his life, for the people around him, for a new resolve on the course of his life and with a new view of himself as a young man instead of a floundering boy. The challenges - physical, emotional and interpersonal were profound and stretched him in a positive way. My husband and his ex-wife participated in each of the parent support gatherings and each time the tears shed were of joy and reunion for the three of them. The course of recovery is never straight line but I can tell you that the changes in my stepson were genuine and though we didn’t expect him to conquer mountains on his own immediately, he has thrived. Most recently back in England he has been working with children in an outdoor camp setting, is back in school, off drugs and off antidepressant meds and has no doubt in no small part Catherine Freer to thank for this. I was fortunated to have met Catherine Freer long before this program existed and about 10 years before her death, she was a dedicated outdoorswoman, a woman of enormous strength and character who loved and mentored kids with emotional challenges and this program IS a fitting tribute to her life.

There are a large number of options are available for Teen at Risk such as boarding school, Boot Camps, Therapeutic programs, Wilderness programs. If your child is facing and behavioral or emotional problem, these schools or programs will help them. These schools will change the direction of your child’s life.

There are different treatment options available for youths-at-risk. The military school is one of the effective options for troubled teens. These articles are worth reading.

This article is helpful for the parents who are planning to send their unmotivated teens to boot camp. They help troubled teens to restore well.

I think that the article was very informative and people should fight hard for stricter regulations. Also, I think that Jayson comment (the first one listed) is disgusting. How dare you take what has happened to these kids and families and try to make it "juicy"??

For the parents that are currently raising difficult children and are desperate for help its OK to find a program for that child. Make sure they have the psychiatrist,couselors and medical on board - and your child should always be able to contact you even if its through a couselor. And if they don't allow this don't leave your child there. red flag - Sometimes when parents are desperate for help - they forget to ask alot of questions....

Any program that abuses children or adults in the name of saving them is a crock! No one needs to be abused to be saved! Many of these places are so abusive you wouldn't believe it! They need to be licensed and they need professional staff that have been trained to care for troubled teens. Some of theses children are in these places because they have lost their parents and there are no foster homes available! Stop the abuse! Just stop it!!

Can we agree, please, that there need to be regulations and licensing at least? Forcing kids through the wilderness could be great for them. But can we please at least all agree that forcing a child to eat his/her own feces is abusive and that it isn't going to teach anyone any life lessons? Please? Even if we don't agree on whether spanking is abusive, can we agree on that?

And there should be training here, and there should be plans for the kinds of adolescents that the programs are advertising that they can handle. Licensing would force this.

Your above article is very good and informed about today’s teens problems. Wide varieties of treatment programs are running in the centers or camps to treat such teenagers. Group homes for teens keep such teens in their homes to heal them perfectly. The staff members works very good in those homes to treat their patients.