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Messages - Oz girl

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1
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: New Leaf management buyout
« on: June 17, 2011, 12:02:48 AM »
it is also worth remembering that the "orginial owners' dont have an especially clean history
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/ ... 133634.php

BEND, Ore. -- A Central Oregon boarding school that frequently ran into trouble with state officials will close its doors for good, according to a report in The Bend Bulletin.

The president of Crater Lake School, which is on a Sprague River ranch in rural Klamath County, has informed state officials and former employees that she will not attempt to renew the facility's boarding school license, which expires at the end of the month.

"It looks like they are throwing in the towel," said Donna Keddy, manager of the residential treatment and licensing unit in the Department of Human Services. "They are voluntarily not going to reopen and that is great news."

The school has been closed since August and the state in October refused a higher-level license that would allow it to become a residential treatment center for severely impaired teenagers.

It marks the second closure of a youth facility for president Bobbi Christensen, who lives in Seattle.

In 1991, Christensen -- known at the time as Bobbi Trott -- agreed to close a California camp that experienced a rash of oversight problems, including the deaths of three teens and four would-be rescuers in an icy Sierra Nevada lake.

In that same legal settlement, she agreed to never operate a similar facility again.

Yet she opened the Crater Lake School in 1997 along with her now deceased-husband.

In the years since Crater Lake School opened, police and state regulators had recurring concerns, state documents dating back to 1998 show. Incidents included chronic runaways, mishandling of prescription drugs, food and heating fuel shortages, harsh discipline and a sex-related conviction of a staff member.

In August, a 17-year-old boy who was a student at the school made an eight-mile trip across Puget Sound in a kayak. He had been camping with other Crater Lake School students at Blake Island and slipped away in the middle of the night. He was found unharmed.

Last month The Bulletin and KATU-TV in Portland published a report on the school and Christensen. At that time, Christensen said she intended to reopen the facility as an academic-only boarding school.

After learning then about problems at the school and the history of its operator, Gov. Ted Kulongoski said people should not be allowed to run ventures in Oregon if they cannot do so in another state.

Keddy said her agency will re-evaluate the application process for residential programs in the wake of the Crater Lake revelations. In particular, potential operators may need to attest that they haven't been forced to give up a license in the past.

In a previous interview, Christensen said her legal settlement was binding only in California.

On another front, the Oregon Attorney General's Office is investigating the program because of allegations of misleading marketing and failure to make refunds. A proposed settlement that would change how the school is promoted has been sent to Christensen, but it has not yet been returned, said spokesman Kevin Neely.

Doris Hester, a former employee of Crater Lake School, said word of the permanent closure made for a gloomy holiday in Sprague River, an unincorporated community about three hours south of Bend. She said the job was the most rewarding she's ever had -- and provided much-needed paychecks for more than a dozen people.

Many parents say the Crater Lake program helped their petulant children, while others have complained about lack of structure and supervision.



Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/ ... z1PVDxoiT8

2
Aspen Education Group / struggling teens article on the restructure
« on: March 30, 2011, 04:42:56 AM »
March 24, 2011

Aspen Education Group is the leading provider of behavioral health and education services for adolescents and has been for over two decades. As part of our commitment to providing clinical excellence for the students and families we serve, we will be transitioning to a more focused national network of services. This smaller network will allow us to apply our resources where there are the greatest needs and assure the best possible service for our students and families.

This transition reflects the reduced demand for therapeutic schools and programs in today's economy, and comes after serious deliberation including substantial financial investment over the past two years in an effort to avoid program consolidations. These decisions are accompanied by extensive planning to ensure that the significant majority of our current students will be able to complete their clinical treatment programs and/or graduate - with comprehensive transition plans developed for the students who may require them - as well as extensive efforts to retain and assist affected employees.

As part of this operational restructuring, Aspen has announced plans to discontinue operations at five locations and consolidate services for three other facilities. The programs to be closed include Bromley Brook School (Manchester Center, VT), New Leaf Academy of Oregon, NorthStar Center (Bend, OR), Aspen Ranch (Loa, UT) and SunHawk Adolescent Recovery Center (St. George, UT). Aspen Achievement Academy (Loa, UT) will consolidate with Aspen's Outback Therapeutic Expeditions in Lehi, Utah; Youth Care (Draper, UT) will be moving onto Aspen's Island View campus in Syracuse, UT, maintaining its established brand name; and Passages to Recovery (Loa, UT) will be relocating to Shoshone, ID, to add a young adult substance abuse treatment component to Aspen's already existing SUWS Adolescent & Youth program.

We are working closely with parents, students, referring professionals and staff to minimize the impact of these changes to the greatest extent possible. The safety and wellbeing of our students are our highest priorities. Careful planning and stay incentives for critical academic and therapeutic staff have been created to ensure the continuity of high-quality services at each program during this reorganization process. The majority of students will continue uninterrupted in their current program locations and graduate as planned. Our intent is that all students enrolled in an outdoor program will complete their program in its entirety. Aspen's robust network of services and programs will offer choices for most of the few remaining students to transition to other strong schools or programs appropriate to their needs. We have created initial transition plans for these students, and are collaborating with families and referring professionals for the smoothest possible transition. In addition, we are paying the student relocation costs for those who transfer to another program, regardless of whether it is within the Aspen network.

Aspen hopes to retain many members of our excellent staff currently working at affected locations, and is offering numerous employees the opportunity to transfer to one of our other facilities. Any employee, full or part time, who we are not able to accommodate within our network, will receive a severance package. Employees will be offered outplacement resources and access to our Employee Assistance Program. We are sincerely appreciative of our employees' many years of dedicated professionalism and service and regret having to make these difficult business decisions. These talented men and women have been instrumental in reuniting families and improving the lives of thousands of students, and have earned immense respect from these families, students, referring professionals and colleagues.

Aspen Education Group remains confident in our collective purpose, our mission, values, and our future. We look forward to continuing to provide adolescents and young adults with the highest quality of care within our ongoing national network of programs.

Aspen Education Group is the nation's leading provider of therapeutic education programs for struggling or underachieving young people. Aspen's services range from short-term intervention programs to residential treatment, and include a variety of therapeutic settings such as boarding schools, outdoor behavioral health programs and special needs summer camps, allowing professionals and families the opportunity to choose the best setting to meet a student's unique academic and emotional needs. Aspen is a division of CRC Health Group, the nation's largest chemical dependency and related behavioral health organization. For over two decades, CRC Health has been achieving successful outcomes for individuals and families.

3
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: St.Judes Treatment Center
« on: February 07, 2011, 06:10:07 PM »
Im not sure this place has anything to do with the troubled teen industry as such. I think it is more a rehab for adults that focuses on a behavioral therapy model. It's parent company is a Catholic organization called the Baldwin Research group. http://www.baldwinresearch.com/
(Not surprising since it is named after the catholic saint of hopeless causes) So i guess if i were looking at it I would ask them how religious the treatment program is. One promising sign was that they seem to frown on traditional aggressive "Interventions"

Q. Do you have an Interventionist or offer Intervention services?

A. The St. Jude Retreats understand that sometimes approaching your loved one about a drug or alcohol problem can be half the battle. While pop television shows may glamorize traditional, confrontational type interventions, research has shown this methodology to be ineffective and oftentimes having the detrimental effect of pushing your loved one even farther away from the help they need. But there is a solution. The St. Jude Retreats’ Family Liaison, is not a traditional Interventionist, but rather a Jude Thaddeus Program specialist whose mission is to assist you to effectively walk through the process of finding the help your loved one needs. Please call our Family Liaison today at 1-888-424-2626 for a free consultatio

4
Aspen Education Group / Re: CRC's 10Q, March 2010 (They're FUCKED!)
« on: January 31, 2011, 07:09:09 AM »
the issues most people have with spectrum disorders are to do with not understanding the social conventions that the rest of us live by. I agree with Ursus that it can be about appreciating that there are benefits to the aspie/autistic lens of the world. One mother once told me that her autistic son was the only of her children that never would lie to her and that was never sarcastic as a teenager. He just did not know how to be.
Surely if we want aspies to learn to navigate the world an institution with just aspies actually prevents this. It also deprives other children of the company of a group of people not like them. All programs seem to talk about the idea that the kids they work with are more obsessed with being "cool" than being "genuine" and suggest that popular culture somehow makes them more shallow that adults. this is the excuse for taking away all personal effects. But Aspies are a group usually supremely unconcerned with what popular culture says is fashionable. They truly are just willing to be their own people. So surely teaching all the "normal" kids to interact in a genuine and compassionate manner is vital. Not locking them away like freaks and trying to force them to comprehend a world that they are not capable of.

5
Yeah the more dodgy the area a new housing estate is built in the more pompous the title. Often the reference is to farming i suppose in keeping with the Australian Bush myth. So if you live in a new place with close to no wide open spaces but plenty of mcmantions it might be called andrews farm or bushmans ridge.
But the marketing of schools is a little different as mainstream Australia mostly can be a little suspicious of anything that looks too holy rollerish or overtly relgious.  Often a new generically christian school will put grammar in the title to make it sound at bit more old and dignified. The only exception to this are catholic schools which are usually named after saints or theologans but even then their brochures talk more about generic "values" and "traditions" or discipline than god specifically.
For instance many people who complained about and eventually got Mercy Ministries shut down here said that they were aware it was christian but assumed that just meant that the people running it were christian but that the main focus was on mental health services not bible studies. To an American I can see how this would seem almost retardedly naive but it was genuinely how it was marketed here.

6
I dont know why it is popular with the christian arm of this industry as i dont think there is a biblical reference but I think it is referencing the film steel magnolias which described the women as being sort of strong but delicate and ladylike. The magnolia flower is known to be tough and resistant to bugs etc. I have no idea why boys boot campy type places go with this flower image because a flower no matter how tough is pretty poofterish if you are a guy, which is of course not what christian boot camps are all about. But I can see the imagery in marketing a girls school

7
Has carlbrook expanded into a chain of schools? I thought they were located in virginia but this said the kid went missing in boston

8
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Christmas in the program
« on: December 01, 2010, 04:18:42 PM »
In Australia there are more suicides over the christmas season than any other time. That is quite telling I think. There is so much pressure attached. I always feel especially sad for those who are incarcerated over christmas even those who are legitimately behind bars. to think of a kid in that situation is heartbreaking. There is a christmas song by paul kelly that talks about being behind bars at christmas, it has become something of a carol here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb4YWJgfmQE

9
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: bogus medical associations
« on: November 22, 2010, 02:00:31 AM »
sorry i posted the same link twice in lieu of the narth one

10
The Troubled Teen Industry / bogus medical associations
« on: November 20, 2010, 10:25:22 PM »
This issue is not directly related to the industry as it is not about sending kids to programs or illegal incarceration, but it is pertenent nevertheless. While the religious right has a history of using discredited science to justify all kinds of crazy parenting methods from corporal punishment to praying the gay away, apparently the latest trick is to form apparently "secular medical" organizations that have names similar to more famous legitimate organizations.
For instance there is a legitimate organization called the American Academy of Pediatrics, which should not be confused with the american college of pediatricians;
http://www.acpeds.org/
or the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.
http://www.acpeds.org/
This is the so called legitimate wing of the pray away the gay movement. their leader was famously caught taking a rent boy to Europe. Apparently the boy was hired from rentboy.com to help him "lift his luggage"
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/05/chri ... d-luggage/
does anyone have any experience of these organizations or know of any more?

11
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: as seen on tv
« on: November 13, 2010, 09:29:20 PM »
Quote from: "Inculcated"
The Bad Kid fixer went to Daytop. See also this thread for Total Transformation



…Ah, here we have a website which offers another advert for the product + a link to all too familiar referral service (struggling teens) + some parent chat on the topic of “how we found the right boot camp for our son” and this month’s podcast is James Lehman…Clicking their link gives us a link to still another sell “The complete guide to consequences” (that having read to me in the Daytop inflection just made me shiver) Um, anyway for the lower price of $79 you get from James Lehman “a $149 value” --that I guess couldn’t be had for the three monthly $109 installments of the “Total Transformation”


I had some sympathy for this woman. The kid was being sent to a boot camp. Nobody would want that for their kid. Given that his issue was drug related i cant understand why the parole officer did not send him to a legitimate rehab as both a boot camp and a "therapeutic" school are pretty unhelpful. There are plenty around. I did however note that struggling teens got a plug. Maybe this guy has a relationship with them

12
Let It Bleed / Re: Stuff you've been listening to
« on: November 13, 2010, 12:42:32 AM »
The Black Keys thickfreakness
BTW how are these guys not more famous?

13
It looks like it is designed for American Expats as it talks about getting away from the environment. It is pretty worrying that it is run by ex isralei army guys.
I agree with shady acres that political or philosophical disagreement is a big factor. particularly it seems with religious programs that view god as the only answer. Given that there only seem to be christian schools for the religious market maybe these guys are targeting the orthodox or fundamentalist Jewish crowd?

14
Let It Bleed / Re: streaming music / download thread
« on: November 11, 2010, 11:01:41 PM »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh05isN4pzI
because i am feeling sad about their breakup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJS4tM4K ... re=related
for those who like their clips live. I love this acoustic version

15
The Troubled Teen Industry / Re: Program Model I support
« on: October 25, 2010, 03:18:39 AM »
I dont think most kids would pursue it if it got too hard without the stucture of a formal lesson which includes a required practice time. Also most people are not genius enough to properly teach themselves the correct technique to do something properly without some level of formal coaching. The other thing this model fails to take into account is that kids left to their own devices are not always little angels. Often bullying is at its worst when no adults intervene. Look at Lord of the Flies.

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