Therapeutic Wilderness Schools - Any Insights?

[Anonymous]

Very helpful and insightful thread. Does anyone have experience with Newport treatment center in Connecticut? For substance abuse and depression/anxiety.

[Anonymous]

9:58,
Do you mind sharing the name of the wilderness program you used?

[Anonymous]

[url]

Anonymous wrote:9:58,
Do you mind sharing the name of the wilderness program you used?

Think you're asking me? Trails Carolina.

[Anonymous]

My teen recently did a hybrid wilderness therapy program followed by therapeutic boarding school at the same age and similar progressive global meltdown. Would be happy to share our experience. Not sure how to do so anonymously on this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My teen recently did a hybrid wilderness therapy program followed by therapeutic boarding school at the same age and similar progressive global meltdown. Would be happy to share our experience. Not sure how to do so anonymously on this forum.

Would you be willing to share the name of the hybrid wilderness therapy program?

[Anonymous]

Summit Achievement in Maine. Three days in dorm cabins with school; 4 days of rigorous outdoors expedition per week. We called it wilderness light. Our educational consultant from Boston didn’t like no aid wilderness programs for younger teens and rehired that the teen go to the program willingly (no outside transporters). My husband drove him there. Teens can’t go to therapeutic boarding schools without doing wilderness first to stabilize them and in some cases sort of detox them.

[Anonymous]

The boarding school was Montana Academy, sort of the gold standard in the industry. It’s a non-profit but costs a fortune. We hired a separate form to handle all health insurance reimbursements for us for a reasonable fee. Montana has passed legislation in the last couple of years strengthening oversight over the industry, but still there are some really awful boarding schools, both in terms of methods and academics. MA was strong on both. My teen is still close to his friends from there.

The benefit of (the good) therapeutic boarding schools is that there are often issues within the family/home that are best addresses when the teen is outside of the home for a sustained period of time. That’s why PHP’s etc. don’t work as well for kids who don’t have deep clinical diagnoses but are often struggling from anxiety/depression/substance use in response to issues that they can’t cope with. MA is careful about who they accept and will not accept kids who need hospital oversight (suicidal, bipolar, schizophrenia, in criminal justice system). Cash-strapped programs aren’t as careful, which could land your teen with peers he shouldn’t be around. You have to completely trust your educational consultant—their expertise, integrity, and motives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP PLEASE do more research. Many “wilderness” programs are really abusive and not therepeutic at all. My brother was sent to one at 13 and it reall scarred him.

You need more/better family therapy before you resort to sending your very young child away to be cared for by adults you don’t know. Yes, that means considering outpatient/inpatient (actually therepeutic) as needed. A good therapist will work on strategies to get your child to therapy.

Many are as you describe. But many aren’t and can be life-changing for a teen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is your kid on medication? Doing CBT? What is he doing now to address the issue?

Neither of these solve the problem of a child being isolated from his peers.

Interesting that op never answered the question.

Medication certainly helps children with anxiety and depression, no matter the cause.
Anxiety and depression are feelings that feel very bad.

A parent who doesn't understand that is lacking the empathy the child needs to understand. A child with anxiety should not be shuffled off to a wilderness program. Again, total lack of empathy about the child's feelings.

There is more going on here besides peer isolation.

Unfortunately, therapists are unable to tell the parents when the problem is the parents as that doesn't pay.

Actually, our experience has been the opposite. The local psychiatrists cycled through all sorts of meds that made my teen much worse. And it wasn’t a matter of dosage, etc. the meds weren’t addressing the drivers of the teen’s struggle. It was the local therapist who recommended
Wilderness. After our teen went through wilderness and arrived at therapeutic boarding school, they were off meds in two months. And are still off them at home. Meds can be helpful for some mental health diagnoses, particularly chronic ones, but they can’t resolve issues some teens are struggling with. And they can make everything worse for some kids. There is no one right answer.

[Anonymous]

My son went to a wilderness program and is now at a TBS (was thinking about Montana Academy for him at one point, but decided on another program). It is a needed step for some kids and should be covered by insurance.....now fighting the school district to pay for TBS....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son went to a wilderness program and is now at a TBS (was thinking about Montana Academy for him at one point, but decided on another program). It is a needed step for some kids and should be covered by insurance.....now fighting the school district to pay for TBS....

Good luck! One of the students in our teen’s cohort successfully got the school district to pay. They used the same ed consultant we did, coincidentally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boarding school was Montana Academy, sort of the gold standard in the industry. It’s a non-profit but costs a fortune. We hired a separate form to handle all health insurance reimbursements for us for a reasonable fee. Montana has passed legislation in the last couple of years strengthening oversight over the industry, but still there are some really awful boarding schools, both in terms of methods and academics. MA was strong on both. My teen is still close to his friends from there.

The benefit of (the good) therapeutic boarding schools is that there are often issues within the family/home that are best addresses when the teen is outside of the home for a sustained period of time. That’s why PHP’s etc. don’t work as well for kids who don’t have deep clinical diagnoses but are often struggling from anxiety/depression/substance use in response to issues that they can’t cope with. MA is careful about who they accept and will not accept kids who need hospital oversight (suicidal, bipolar, schizophrenia, in criminal justice system). Cash-strapped programs aren’t as careful, which could land your teen with peers he shouldn’t be around. You have to completely trust your educational consultant—their expertise, integrity, and motives.

thanks for your post. does that school have doctors on staff? I can absolutely understand why residential care could be appropriate, but I have a sibling permanently scarred by being sent to “wilderness therapy” in Montana in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The boarding school was Montana Academy, sort of the gold standard in the industry. It’s a non-profit but costs a fortune. We hired a separate form to handle all health insurance reimbursements for us for a reasonable fee. Montana has passed legislation in the last couple of years strengthening oversight over the industry, but still there are some really awful boarding schools, both in terms of methods and academics. MA was strong on both. My teen is still close to his friends from there.

The benefit of (the good) therapeutic boarding schools is that there are often issues within the family/home that are best addresses when the teen is outside of the home for a sustained period of time. That’s why PHP’s etc. don’t work as well for kids who don’t have deep clinical diagnoses but are often struggling from anxiety/depression/substance use in response to issues that they can’t cope with. MA is careful about who they accept and will not accept kids who need hospital oversight (suicidal, bipolar, schizophrenia, in criminal justice system). Cash-strapped programs aren’t as careful, which could land your teen with peers he shouldn’t be around. You have to completely trust your educational consultant—their expertise, integrity, and motives.

thanks for your post. does that school have doctors on staff? I can absolutely understand why residential care could be appropriate, but I have a sibling permanently scarred by being sent to “wilderness therapy” in Montana in the 90s.

Yes, MA has a psychiatrist, clnical psychologist and nurse on its staff. For medical problems that arise, such as appendicitis. they use urgent care and Kalispell Regional Medical Cebter.

[Anonymous]

My son's therapeutic boarding school has a psychiatrist whom all patients who are on meds need to speak with regularly. They also have several PhD level psychologists on staff. And a nurse is on property daily, distributing medications. There are many excellent programs out there - if you are looking, consult with an educational consultant to weed out the bad apples....

[Anonymous]

Please just be very careful. These schools are largely unregulated in many states and I imagine you’re aware of the bad practices that have come to light at many therapeutic boarding schools. Also, much like juvie, your kid will be in an environment where he is exposed to kids with more problematic behaviors than his and may decompensate as a result.

Be sure that you’ve exhausted all options in your community first. Therapy, alternative school, etc.