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Reply to "Therapeutic Wilderness Schools - Any Insights?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Residential treatment centers exist for a reason, people. Adventist and Sheppard Pratt immediately come to mind for Maryland. There have been multiple reports of sexual abuse at these wilderness programs. How much crack does a parent have to be smoking to send their child struggling with mental and behavioral problems somewhere without psychologists and psychiatrists on staff? I wonder if some of these people truly want to help their child or punish them for ruining their perfect family image. [/quote]

Adventist and Sheppard Pratt are for short term psychiatric stabilization. A week at most, to get started on a different medication cocktail. IF your child can get a bed in one of the local psychiatric in patient wards, that’s all they offer. Then your child will be sent home with the advice to do PHP.
Not sure about MD but in VA there were months-long waitlists for PHPs in 2019. So mentally ill children needing intensive therapy were sitting at home for months waiting for a spot. If your child isn’t willing to go and participate, the PHP will not admit them. If your child isn’t willing to go to a therapy office and participate, the therapist won’t help you. There aren’t “therapy house calls”. Basically every available local option requires the child to be willing and able to participate. And no one will take a patient who is aggressive, violent, throws furniture, etc. [/quote]

Ok I get that mental health care is very difficult to access.  But the answer to that is NOT a non-therepeutic setting like trails, where it’s not even clear they will do medication management, and they are not providing therapy, and force kids into pain and suffering. Unless you basically want to punish your teen and have someone else do it for you. It may be less damaging to kids with addiction or criminal justice issues. But to send a kid to a boot camp after they were just a psychiatric in patient? Nope.

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You know nothing. Are you in the mental healthcare field? [/quote]

You somebow know despite all the documented evidence that a place like Trails is appropriate for a kid with a serious mental illness? Come on. I’m not against appropriate residential treatment- obviously has its place. But many wilderness therapy programs are abusive scams. [/quote]

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