A behavior modification facility is a residential educational and treatment institution enrolling adolescents who are perceived as displaying antisocial behavior, in an attempt to alter their conduct.
Mission Mountain School was a therapeutic boarding school for girls located in Condon, Missoula County, Montana. It operated from October 1, 1990, to August 16, 2008. On that date, the school graduated its last class and ceased operation, announcing that its founders would be on sabbatical.
Wilderness therapy, also known as outdoor behavioral healthcare, is a treatment option for behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents. Patients spend time living outdoors with peers. Reports of abuse, deaths, and lack of research into efficacy have led to controversy, and there is no solid proof of its effectiveness in treating such behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents.
In the United States, a teen escort company, also called a youth transport firm or secure transport company, is a business that specializes in transporting teenagers from their homes to various facilities in the troubled teen industry. Such businesses typically employ a form of legal kidnapping, abducting sleeping teenagers and forcing them into a vehicle. Teen escort companies in the United States are subject to little or no government regulation and commonly result in permanent trauma.
The River View Christian Academy (RCVA), formerly known as Julian Youth Academy, is a fully accredited, private Christian boarding school in Lee County, Texas. RCVA is a program of Teen Rescue, Inc. RCVA helped teen girls in need of regular supervision. RCVA provided an individualized education program, coaching, intervention, parent-training support groups, a high staff-to-student ratio, and aftercare support.
Aspen Education Group is an American company that provides controversial therapeutic interventions for adolescents and young adults, including wilderness therapy programs, residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, and weight loss programs, which have been accused of torture and abuse. Since November 2006, Aspen Education Group, with corporate offices located in Cerritos, California has been a division of Bain Capital's CRC Health.
Aspen Achievement Academy was a wilderness therapy program for adolescents, based in Loa, Utah.
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) is a United States trade organization of therapeutic schools, residential treatment programs, wilderness programs, outdoor therapeutic programs, young adult programs, and home-based residential programs for adolescents and young adults with emotional and behavioral difficulties. It was formed in January 1999 by the founders of six programs within the "troubled teen industry," and its board of directors consists of program owners and educational consultants. As of 2021, all but one of those founding six programs have been shut down in the ensuing years for a variety of reasons, including child abuse, neglect, licensing violations, and successful class action lawsuits.
Allynwood Academy, formerly the Family Foundation School, was a private, co-educational, college preparatory, therapeutic boarding school located in Hancock, New York. The school was in operation from 1984 through 2014, when it closed due to declining enrollment amid a raft of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse allegations made by alumni in a grassroots "truth campaign." At least ten lawsuits have been brought by former students since 2019, in which plaintiffs claimed that strip searches, hard labor, isolation rooms, physical restraint, and sexual assault were rampant at the school in the 1990s and 2000s. Three of the lawsuits were settled in October 2021 for undisclosed sums. A front-page New York Times article in 2018 reported a pattern of at least one hundred deaths by overdose and suicide among alumni, the vast majority before age 40.
A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch" approach to treating abnormal psychology or psychopathology.
The Thayer Learning Center or TLC was a military based, Christian boarding school boot camp for troubled teens in Kidder, Missouri from 2002 to 2009. The program enrolled over 100 students and costs run up to $4,000 a month. The program stated that it "... changes, reunites, and restores hope to families across the nation." There has been some controversy in past years. The center is one of many facilities for troubled teens listed on the watch list on the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC).website. For more information on the ISAC allegations, see the ISAC website here..
The Community Alliance For the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) is an advocacy group for people enrolled in residential treatment programs for at-risk teenagers. The group's mission includes advocating for access to advocates, due process, alternatives to aversive behavioral interventions, and alternatives to restraints and seclusion for young people in treatment programs. They have also called for the routine reporting of abuse in residential treatment programs, as well as federal government oversight and regulation of residential treatment programs.
Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids is a non-fiction book by Maia Szalavitz analyzing the controversy surrounding the troubled teen industry. The book was published February 16, 2006, by Riverhead Books. Szalavitz focuses on four programs: Straight, Incorporated, a copy of the Straight Inc. program called KIDS, North Star wilderness boot camp, and the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools. She discusses the background, history and methodology of the troubled-teen industry, including techniques drawn from attack therapy and Synanon. She uses first-person accounts and court testimony in her research, and states that no evidence exists proving that these programs are effective. The book also includes advice for parents and an appendix with additional resources on how to get responsible help for teenagers.
CEDU Educational Services, Inc., known simply as CEDU, was a company founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman and associated with the troubled teen industry. The company owned and operated several therapeutic boarding schools licensed as group homes, wilderness therapy programs, and behavior modification programs in California and Idaho. The company's schools have faced numerous allegations of abuse. CEDU went out of business in 2005, amid lawsuits and state regulatory crackdowns.
Mount Bachelor Academy was an Oregon private co-educational therapeutic boarding school providing help to families of adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral disorders including, minor Depressive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Substance abuse, and ADHD as well as help for teenagers and families struggling with adoption issues. The typical student was between 14 and 18 years of age. The average length of stay was 14 to 16 months.
Diamond Ranch Academy was a therapeutic boarding school just outside the town of Hurricane, Utah, United States. It admitted adolescents, 12–18, with various issues, including anger management issues and major depressive disorder. Diamond Ranch Academy was founded in Idaho Falls in 1999 by Rob Dias and later moved to southern Utah, where it occupied a 200-acre (81 ha) ranch. It closed in August 2023 after a decision by Utah officials not to renew the school's license.
Elevations RTC is a residential treatment center in Syracuse, Utah, for teens ages 13–18. The facility was formerly known as Island View Residential Treatment Center until 2014, when it was acquired by Syracuse RTC, LLC, which does business as Elevations RTC. The Elevations campus is shared with Seven Stars and ViewPoint Center.
Shepherd's Hill Academy (SHA) is an accredited and licensed Christian therapeutic boarding school located in Martin, Georgia, United States, that provides year-round residential care and a private school for grades 7 through 12.
Sequel Youth and Family Services is a private for-profit operator of behavioral healthcare facilities for children and youth in the United States. The company is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama and owns a nationwide network of over 40 facilities in more than 15 states, including residential treatment centers, group homes, special schools, and community-based programs.
The troubled teen industry is a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools.
