Dr. Phil is not an ATM-machine. Aspen Education Group is.

The third episode of a show where all good professionalism is thrown away was broadcasted today. Two teenage girls who show a behavior which very clearly displays that the parents should have been forced to take parenting classes were sent to a boot camp near Escalante in Utah. A boot camp previous used on a number of TV-shows in Germany, United Kingdom and the States. A harsh environment where the girls are supposed to be safe while they are subjected to non-functioning sleeping bags with broken zippers and no running water in the cabins until they are broken down under a regime not found worse in a boot camp for professional adult soldiers.


Somehow the girls made it out. One of the girls did lose faith the family unit and opted for boarding school while the other sister wanted a more normal life with boyfriends, day school and everything else ordinary teenagers should be allowed when we are talking year 2011.


Now Turn-about Ranch is owned by Aspen Education Group. Due to modern research it is now known that the higher cost of residential treatment compared with treatment at home does not result in a better result. It produces a new starting point for the teenager on the stage of the adult life which is in fact worse, because the young adult has to adapt to the social standards of the normal society. Standards where possible temptations need to be addressed based on own experiences in the individuals life so far.


For many young adults coming out of residential treatment the release into the normal society is like switching a light on. In some countries the need for more or less aftercare up to age 25 is recognized but for 95 percent the reality is being thrown out on the streets without any support. Needless to say that prisons in several countries are filled with children coming out from residential treatment centers, boarding schools and foster care. More than 70 percent of the inmates aged 18 or a little more are estimated to be needing treatment rather than imprisonment if they shall improve.


But the modern research has resulted in less demand for residential treatment and as result of this Aspen Education Group has announced that they will close 5 residential treatment centers. However this may not be enough. That is where Dr. Phil comes into the picture. At a point he ask himself whether he is an ATM-machine. He isn’t!


Aspen Education Group isn’t either. They are fighting for their survival defending a costly and obsolete treatment philosophy.
It is just too bad that their fight have just an effect on two innocent teenage girls, which most likely would have to battle posttraumatic stress disorder for the rest of their lives.

Sources:
Troubled Teens: Crisis Point (Dr. Phil Website)

While HR911 seems stuck in the Senate, the work for improving human rights for minors has met some success.

Aspen Education Group has announced that they will close 5 residential programs. No longer will minors be forced to wear orange jumpsuits at Aspen Ranch in Loa. While some of the girls at Bromley Brock School found some comfort by a male staff member most suffered because they were removed far from their family and friends. Their suffering is now coming to an end. Also the divorce academy New Leaf will close down. While some custodial parents now have a tool less at their hand if they want to keep their daughter from the non-custodial parent, there will be girls out there which now are able to keep contact with both parents.

Two substance treatment centers will also close down. It is no surprise as the fact is that you cannot force an addict to be sober. People cannot change what they don’t acknowledge is wrong. All such treatment centers can do is wasting money.
Another closure is Elan School best known for beating a “confession” out of Michael Shakel. The rather controversial therapy consisted of putting a minor into a boxing ring just to let the other students beat the minor up until the minor broke and confessed to some problems the treatment employees then could start to treat. It is not known whether the closure would improve Shakel’s chance of an appeal or a pardon.

Finally the authorities in Costa Rica raided a boarding school with children from the United States. The school used a system from the former WWASP schools and it seems that some of the WWASP owners were involved in this school. 21 teenagers were freed.

2011 seems to be a good year. Also it seems that we have been spared deaths in residential treatment programs so far. Last year 7 children died in residential care in U.S. treatment facilities. If we are lucky we could end up with less deaths this year.