as a way to transport them to its programs. These programs often use other euphemisms besides"adventure therapy" — they call the kidnapping of children from their beds at the behest of parents,"transportation" or"interventions." Likewise, they say they don't employ"solitary confinement," but rather"calming rooms," a term used in the past by a Utah-based program.
The industry claims these programs have changed, yet fresh lawsuits, like the one in Wyoming, still arise. And the people tasked with caring for troubled teens are sometimes no less troubled than the teens themselves, with many staffers' lacking a background in childcare or clinical psychology. In many cases, staffers have only met the criteria of recent job postings which only require counselors to have graduated high school and be 21 years of age or older.
An owner of a program in the South, who wrote to me in seeking a dialogue about how the programs and this moment might manifest positive changes in the industry, said he believes"there are serious moral deficits in the way that business is run, in how [the industry] operates and advertises, the idea of placement outside the home being more effective than an IOP [intensive outpatient programs], andHe did not wish to speak on the record because"my entire social circle would be...