Apologies that this post is so link-heavy but the information will (hopefully) make the issues clearer. I discovered a big problem recently that has some striking parallels to another ongoing interest of mine. I have something of an ulterior motive here: beyond sharing this information with people who might find the whole thing as amazing (and in urgent need of action) as I do, I'm also hoping some ISFers might be willing to share any information of their own that might help, and brainstorm about some ideas on how we can help break this industry.
IFS already has threads featuring Recovered Memory Therapy, the questionable (to put it mildly) diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka Multiple Personality Disorder) and the promotion of dangerous conspiracy theories/delusion by professionals in mental health care system, so I'll try not to go into too much detail about that here.
There's another pervasive yet amazingly under-recognized problem in the USA regarding various residential treatment programs for youth, known broadly as the Troubled Teen industry. There are a few basic templates: teen bootcamps, wilderness therapy, therapeutic boarding schools and some residential treatment/rehab centers for teens, as well as faith-based versions of these which can differ somewhat but are still considered part of the industry. At heart, these are thought reform/behavior modification scams.
The scam is that they market themselves to desperate parents as the answer for their unruly, troubled teen. The selling points are generally of the fear-mongering type, encouraging terrified parents to act immediately lest their pot-smoking, boozing teen end up in a gang, or pregnant, or in prison, or dead. Kids with serious mental illnesses, eating disorders, autism, and other issues beyond their control -- kids desperately in need of competent, compassionate medical and psychiatric care -- also end up at these facilities. Parents think they're sending their kids off to a facility where they'll be tended to by skilled, trained staff; a safe place with rules and structure. What actually happens is that the kids are subjected to psychological abuse at all the facilities, and at some of them, physical abuse, sometimes resembling what you'd find at Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force. (Yes, at some of them it really is that bad)
Punishments, whether for wrongdoing or for simply not engaging in whatever way is demanded of them, are often meted out by upper level residents who, themselves, have no choice but to comply. (Think Stanford prison experiment here) They are psychologically broken down through the usual means - physical labor, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, isolation, forced confessions (analogous to the "disclosures" made via coercive therapy). Since the residents are isolated from family, friends, and outside influences, shunning and social ostracization are among the most powerful punishments for not "working the program". Those of you familiar with Recovered Memory Therapy will recognize the similar cult tactics in encouraging patients to break ties with family and friends who doubt their new narrative, and the subsequent dependence on the therapist and the "survivor" community as their primary peer group. The same psychological manipulation, creating the same forced helplessness and dependence on the group and the leaders.
As with the insular group of RM clinicians, these programs are generally run and staffed by the same group of people, many of whom are affiliated with the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, or WWASP. From time to time they come under scrutiny for deaths at the facilities or abuse allegations, and then they relocate and open another program with a new name. Or, they simply rename the same facility and populate it with "new" staff (from out of state programs, or programs run in certain non-US locales).
There are trade organizations, such as NATSAP (National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs) who offer the appearance of legitimacy and little else.
WWASP Survivors lists this on their Red Flags page:
Accredited by Program Trade Organizations that DO NOT properly monitor or set specific standards of care to ensure the safety and well being of all students. Often spearheaded by the program owners themselves and only perpetrated as a third party agency. Membership status does not depend on proof of standards being met, only requirement is payment of dues.
Likewise with RM clinicians, there's little or no recourse for victims, as they have friends in high places and program owners on the regulation boards.
The following transcription is from a (public) exchange with a survivor of one these programs who has done some excellent investigative work on the subject:
Still having trouble wrapping my mind around this, I asked who one might petition for an investigation:
So, there's a high concentration of these facilities in certain states where the governing agencies are either owners, or are sympathetic to owners. They're allowed to write their own rules, oversee implementation of those rules, and conduct their own investigations into complaints. Nonexistent oversight, zero accountability.
The industry also has its own journal, the Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, with deeply flawed "studies" that "prove" the benefits of these programs.
Some further reading:
Mitt Romney's Special Interest
Excerpt:
Note the line "over a dozen facilities had been closed" -- which sounds great, but as mentioned above, they simply go off to work at other facilities, reopen somewhere else, or reopen at the same location with a new name.
Systematic Abuse and Neglect at Bain Owned Capital Treatment Centers
Excerpt:
Any thoughts, comments, ramblings, harassments, have at it.
IFS already has threads featuring Recovered Memory Therapy, the questionable (to put it mildly) diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (aka Multiple Personality Disorder) and the promotion of dangerous conspiracy theories/delusion by professionals in mental health care system, so I'll try not to go into too much detail about that here.
There's another pervasive yet amazingly under-recognized problem in the USA regarding various residential treatment programs for youth, known broadly as the Troubled Teen industry. There are a few basic templates: teen bootcamps, wilderness therapy, therapeutic boarding schools and some residential treatment/rehab centers for teens, as well as faith-based versions of these which can differ somewhat but are still considered part of the industry. At heart, these are thought reform/behavior modification scams.
The scam is that they market themselves to desperate parents as the answer for their unruly, troubled teen. The selling points are generally of the fear-mongering type, encouraging terrified parents to act immediately lest their pot-smoking, boozing teen end up in a gang, or pregnant, or in prison, or dead. Kids with serious mental illnesses, eating disorders, autism, and other issues beyond their control -- kids desperately in need of competent, compassionate medical and psychiatric care -- also end up at these facilities. Parents think they're sending their kids off to a facility where they'll be tended to by skilled, trained staff; a safe place with rules and structure. What actually happens is that the kids are subjected to psychological abuse at all the facilities, and at some of them, physical abuse, sometimes resembling what you'd find at Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force. (Yes, at some of them it really is that bad)
Punishments, whether for wrongdoing or for simply not engaging in whatever way is demanded of them, are often meted out by upper level residents who, themselves, have no choice but to comply. (Think Stanford prison experiment here) They are psychologically broken down through the usual means - physical labor, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, isolation, forced confessions (analogous to the "disclosures" made via coercive therapy). Since the residents are isolated from family, friends, and outside influences, shunning and social ostracization are among the most powerful punishments for not "working the program". Those of you familiar with Recovered Memory Therapy will recognize the similar cult tactics in encouraging patients to break ties with family and friends who doubt their new narrative, and the subsequent dependence on the therapist and the "survivor" community as their primary peer group. The same psychological manipulation, creating the same forced helplessness and dependence on the group and the leaders.
As with the insular group of RM clinicians, these programs are generally run and staffed by the same group of people, many of whom are affiliated with the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools, or WWASP. From time to time they come under scrutiny for deaths at the facilities or abuse allegations, and then they relocate and open another program with a new name. Or, they simply rename the same facility and populate it with "new" staff (from out of state programs, or programs run in certain non-US locales).
There are trade organizations, such as NATSAP (National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs) who offer the appearance of legitimacy and little else.
WWASP Survivors lists this on their Red Flags page:
Accredited by Program Trade Organizations that DO NOT properly monitor or set specific standards of care to ensure the safety and well being of all students. Often spearheaded by the program owners themselves and only perpetrated as a third party agency. Membership status does not depend on proof of standards being met, only requirement is payment of dues.
Likewise with RM clinicians, there's little or no recourse for victims, as they have friends in high places and program owners on the regulation boards.
The following transcription is from a (public) exchange with a survivor of one these programs who has done some excellent investigative work on the subject:
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Former Program Resident
So, there's a pretty high concentration of programs of this type in Utah especially, and this was the first state to kind of specifically regulate Wilderness programs and residential facilities that are following this kind of thought reform model or behavior modification model. And it was I think in 2004 or 2005, legislation was passed requiring new rules to be written to regulate the industry, and the agency, the Office of Licensing which was responsible for writing these rules, allowed the trade organization to write their own rules, and allowed the trade organization to put a member on the board overseeing the implementation of these rules. I know also in Montana, something very similar happened: the state legislator who introduced the bill, and [unclear] the oversight for it, himself owned a program of this type. And when the board was created, he actually stipulated that the majority of the members of this board be from programs. And to my knowledge the only presidents of this board called PAARP in Montana have been program owners or associated with programs. So the problem is that when state legislation has been introduced it's been sweetheart legislation, and that even the oversight boards are either from the industry itself or extremely sympathetic to it.
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Quote:
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That's a good question. What we find is that things aren't acted upon, programs are allowed to investigate their own - investigate themselves, and of course they find nothing wrong with anything that they're doing. |
The industry also has its own journal, the Journal of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, with deeply flawed "studies" that "prove" the benefits of these programs.
Some further reading:
Mitt Romney's Special Interest
Excerpt:
Quote:
|
During his run, one of his Romney’s biggest donors and his campaign's utah financial co-chair, was WWASP's owner Robert Lichfield, who also happened to be the primary defendant in a pending civil suit on behalf of over 350 plaintiffs suing for a long list of maltreatment including assault, willful negligence, sexual abuse and fraud. If that weren't bad enough, by 2008 over a dozen WWASP facilities had been closed following investigations of abuse and multiple lawsuits and charges had been filed against WWASP including the conviction of WWASP staffer, Randall Hinton for assault and unlawful imprisonment. Robert Lichfield claims this is all in the name of God… seeing himself doing "God’s Work" and the survivors who oppose his program as "evil" and fueled by Satan. |
Systematic Abuse and Neglect at Bain Owned Capital Treatment Centers
Excerpt:
Quote:
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...Levine tells the story of Brendan Blum — a 14-year-old autistic boy, left in an isolation room all night at a CRC facility as he screamed in agony. Hours later he was dead from a twisted bowel infarction, his corpse discovered on the morning shift. In the 12 years before Bain took over, CRC had no known cases of a wrongful death. But Levine uncovered fresh details about six wrongful deaths since the Bain takeover in 2006. |
Any thoughts, comments, ramblings, harassments, have at it.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1WW1Ly1
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