Various testimonies from Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness

[Oscar]

Some of the testimonies found on Google reviews:

Truly one of the most terrible experiences of my life. I wake up screaming from nightmares about getting sent back and every time something bad happens to me I worry that I will get sent away again. Please, for the love of God, do not send your child here. They kept me in isolation from my group members for an entire month because I couldn't make a fire. Staff would belittle us, especially my therapist, Christine. I have chronic back and hip pain from the hikes that I took there. I had an eating disorder and would be forced to hike for hours without having eaten anything for the past 2 days. There were times I collapsed and fell with my face in the dirt during hikes and staff would not help me up. I was malnourished and not provided with the proper care for someone recovering from an eating disorder. They were extremely medically negligent. I was forced to take a black box medication and was titrated at an adult rate when I was 13. I had severe tooth pain that kept me from talking and eating and it took them a whole month to take me to the dentist. They lied and told my parents they sent me as soon as they found out. There was a student who had a fly lay eggs in wounds in her hands and she was never taken to the doctor. After 2 weeks staff stopped giving her iodine even though there was still fly larvae crawling out of her skin. I could go on for pages about what I experienced at Blue Ridge, but the bottom line is that if your child is sent to blue ridge, they will be abused. Please, for the love of God, do not send your child here.

This place should be shut down immediately. They are abusive in every form of the word and the counselors are completely delusional if they believe other wise. Also the therapists are complete liars and use emotional manipulation to get what they want (money) from the children's guardian's. They tell the parent's that their child is improving when in reality they are starving to death and being verbally broken down every single day. Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness program destroyed my life and I will probably struggle with ptsd for the rest of my life.

This program is extremely abusive.  I had my daughter go there when she was 16.  She went for 5 months and when I saw her again, she wasn?t the same.  There were scratches and bruises all over her body.  She was pale and thin and even had extreme eye bags due to lack of sleep and care.

I wouldn?t even wish this upon my worst enemy.  Because of this program, my daughter has horrible ptsd along with anxiety and depression.

This place deserves 0 stars. My parents were not aware of what they were getting me into. I have had ptsd therapy for a year now and still have nightmares. I never felt safe for example i stayed up all night during a storm in light night position counting at least 100 lightning strikes and had to hike 2 miles the next day on no sleep. I witnessed one of my group mates beat up another and it was truly scarring. Girls self harmed all the time and would run away just to be brought back cut up and in horrible condition. This place is poorly run and brainwashing. I will never truly recover and i hope these sort of places are shut down forever.

I was here for about 3 months. I was only able to wash my hair once they pored water on my head after I scrubbed my hair. I lost 15lbs and have severe ptsd. When I returned home my head was so matted I had developed dreadlocks and lice I had to spend 4 days trying to salvage my hair and keep in mind my hair is relatively curly. There were kids there with much curlier hair who no doubt went home and shaved their head. I have chronic pain in my back and severe ptsd. The reviews written by ?happy parents? are not real. Please if you are thinking of sending yourself or your kids here, don?t. Do not do it.

Do not send your child here. I am a survivor and suffer from diagnosed PTSD from this place. A lot of other people had to go through the same thing and we all know that this place causes more bad than good for us. Spending 100+ days here felt like torture and I still haven't forgiven my parents for sending me here.
If you are planning to send your child here don't. Do some research instead and try to help them in a nother way.

I went here for over 6 months. They do not give you fresh water or to treat anything with it. Most of the kids at came are extremely sick, vomiting and diarrhea, the workers would brush it off and thought it was a joke. Every happy picture is staged. All in all it was a terrible experience and all it did was traumatize me

It's a cash grab.

I spent nine weeks in the woods living under conditions that aren't even acceptable in our prison system.

One highlight of the experience is when I got sick with dystentary and they forced me to march with a seventy pound pack. When I keeled over to vomit they had me bag it up in a plastic bag and carry it due to their "leave no trace" policy.

We were constantly under physical and mental strain, and if we didn't smile and pretend to be "learning" or "healing" they would punish us with isolation from the group or no food.

When I finally got through their program there was a transition camp for two days with my parents. The difference between the quality of life at transition camp and the regular program were night and day.

These people do not care about helping kids. They want money.

I almost lost my left leg and died from infection. The infection was a direct result of the lack of care shown at this program. On top of that, they go around lying about whose behind this program truly, it is a Second Nature program which are notorious for their abusive practices and disfunction. Deleting my review will do nothing as well because I am operating on spite and I guarantee that fire burns stronger than any attempts you people can make at stopping me. I speak the truth and have the evidence to back it.