I asked in another board. The answers depend on the timeframe they were in these programs.
Basically up til 1990, they were totally against medication. If a child entered the program and was on medication, they forced him or her off medication. Some of you have children, who have been denying to take medication and you know what happen then.
In 1990 they suddenly decided that medication is OK. It became a different program. Wasserman got old and sold the program to the Brown School. Staff claims that the new owner ran the business into the ground. They closed in 2005. Two of the schools and the wilderness program opened now owned by a large hospital chain. Here is a link about the closure:
Rocky Mountain Academy to close; Inability to find leadership blamed (The Spokesman Review)
The program structure is very similar to the one in the late 1990's but the marathon seminars are not called
Propheets anymore but Workshops. The confrontation therapy called Request Group is now called Group therapy, which could indicate that the new owners, who is a hospital chain have hired professional staff, so the most important risk factor with group therapy among youth - that they takes others problems on them - are being eliminated.
If you allow a youth to attack a peer during group therapy, you can risk that the attacked kids takes the contents of the attack serious and frankly what kind of knowledge does a 16 year old kid know about mental problems. Isn't there a reason for professionals to study the human mind for years?
Because the new owners are a huge chain and they want to remain a huge chain, I guess that they have removed a lot of the religion the original program contained. They won't like lawsuits. One thing parents should be allowed if possible is to be a fly on the wall during group therapy. It is there the action is.
If I had a kid in a program I would go there when possible as often as it is possible. In many of our continuation schools, which are close to these places, mobilephones are allowed during certain hours every day. The school wont accept any kind of urban legend to develop just because the kids live in some kind of bubble. When I asked our department of education for a SEVIS approved schools in Idaho, they refered me to research boards like Fornits and webpages like Isaccorp and Caica.
I was a little disturbed to find that people still speaks so badly about a place they were in some 10-20 years ago. I can understand that a kid just leaving the program is angry about loosing a year from partying and high school life. But when they are matured and have good lives with job and children, they should be able to see that their parents did a good thing for them. But that is not the case. I did go to the extend to research the myspace groups of former students when I wanted to remove my daughter from our appointed family coach from our county (The one who wants to introduce our daughter to the party life with alcohol and all). On the myspace groups they still are angry and we are in some cases talking +10 years out of the program.
I don't believe that these places in Idaho are as bad as the foregin ones closed by the local authorities in Mexico, Costa Rica, The Czech republic, Italy and Samoa. However I don't understand why they insist on isolation. They could give the kids mobilephones, which are opened for one number only so they can call home on a budget? Here in Denmark you can buy phones which the parents load with a certain amount every month and coded so one number can be dialed. Then it is up to the kid to use the phone wisely.
Steely. If you are afraid, then call and demand him on the phone. It is your child. You are paying a lot for him to be there. It certainly should be your right.
I can feel that you are a good parent and care for your son. If I somehow upset you and my previous post was too judgmental I apologize for that. It was not the intention.