Wilderness Program for troubled girls

[virginiabreeze]

Hello, has anyone one had any experience with Wilderness programs for Troubled Girls. My sister is considering sending her 17 year old daughter to a facility in Utah. It would cost at least $10,620/month.

If my sister were to place her daughter here it would mean hiring an interventialist to bascially 'kidnap' her and transport her to Utah.

I was wondering if anyone has tried something like this, and if it 'worked'.

Thank you - a concerned sister

 

[AnnieO]

$10K+ a month?

I don't have experience with this, however... No matter the cost, whether it works or not is going to depend on the girl. If she is ready to help herself, it will help her do so. If not... It could change her mind, but there's no guarantee either way.

 

[virginiabreeze]

It's my niece. She ran away 7+ months ago. My sister doesn't even know where she is. They would have to hire a private investigator to track her down and escort her to the facility. The difficult child is 17, dropped out of school. My sister says if she tries to bring the difficult child home, that she will just run again. So, now she is considering the wilderness Residential Treatment Center (RTC). I was just wondering if this is a good idea. My sister keeps asking me for advice - and I am so out of my league here.

 

[Lucedaleblessed]

I would very certainly drive all the way to Utah and look the treatment center over for myself. I am practically the neighbor to a now closed residential treatment center here in Lucedale and the photos of the center is not even close to reality. After Katrina pieces of the walls and parts of the roof were missing. They didn't care to fix it and still took patients in. When I researched some of the places for my daughter I found that they in general photoshops the photos.

My daughter is far from perfect and the juvie is no answer as the economy down here is to bad that they would send her back with a warning unless she kills me so they don't have to pay for the costs of housing her. We did a weekend boot camp years back and it improved her behavior. I guess that if she could have stayed her behavior would have continued to be good but at some time they do come home and after 3 months they are back where they came from. I guess that they just have to grow up and want to change at some point.

In this forum naming the Residential Treatment Center (RTC) is not an good idea but when I googled it I found that they had a terrible traffic accident in 2010 where to girls died when they were going back from an outing. Instead of a hired driver they made a young therapist drive and she lost control of the minivan. They are located in the middle of a town so if your niece is good escaping and running away I would look at something a little more remote from everything.

 

[virginiabreeze]

Thank you for the info - I deleted the name of the Residential Treatment Center (RTC). I also passed the info about the accident to my sister. I guess that could have happened anywhere - sounds like it was a very tragic accident.

 

[DDD]

Fortunately I have no experience with those programs; however, I watched a network special maybe six years ago or so and it seems "iffy" to me. We used to have a CD family member who was sent to an out of state program. The last time she posted I would guess he was in her mid to late twenties and she still had not emotionally recovered from the experience. There are (or were) websites or blogs or ?? on line where former residents shared their experiences to warn innocent parents. I have no idea which program she was in. The tv special had quite an emphasis on Utah. I assume there are some that are good but I don't doubt for a minute that there are many your sister would want to avoid. I advise alot of research and caution. DDD

 

[DammitJanet]

There are some good wilderness programs. Cory went to one that is run by a religious group here in NC. Not my religious affiliation but they take any problem boys. They were very good. I didnt have any major issues with them. Certainly nothing life threatening, if anything he liked it too much.