Schools for Trouble Teens

Parents often joke about missing an “owner’s manual” for their children. Underlying this jest might be a very real fear that the parents are somehow doing irreparable harm to their children through their own choices. This fear might grow even stronger in parents of troubled teens, and they might begin asking themselves some difficult questions. “How can I help?” “What should I do?” “Is it my fault?” For these parents, no answers seem to completely fit these questions. Out of desperation, some parents begin to ponder the idea of sending their child to a therapeutic boarding school, rehabilitation facility or military school. Here, the parents hope, their child will get needed help for behavioral problems and one day, the teens may thank the parents for their intervention.

While some schools for troubled teens do provide real and necessary help that can mean the difference between life and death, other programs can actually be damaging to fragile teens trapped between youth and adulthood. Discerning the difference between appropriate programs and inappropriate programs can take some time, but there are some guidelines that can provide real help for parents who need to make this difficult choice.

Asking for Help

The best advice a parent can follow when dealing with a troubled teen is to step back, relax and ask for help from an outsider. Teens can act up and act out for a variety of reasons, including:

• Mental illness
• Recent trauma
• Buried trauma
• Underlying addiction

Each one of these issues must be treated slightly differently, and sometimes, teens can have multiple issues hitting them at the exact same time. Some teens are willing and able to articulate their issues, but others have such fractured relationships with their parents that openness is impossible. In addition, it can be difficult to distinguish one of these problems from another. Thankfully, no one expects a parent to be a mental health or addiction expert. But, parents should be expected to ask for help from an expert before they move forward with a school for their teen. The issue is much too large to be handled alone.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) suggests that teens who display severe behavioral issues should be seen by a mental health professional right away. In order to make a proper diagnosis, the teen may need to attend several visits, held within a few days of one another, answer questions and take a variety of tests. The teen might be asked to describe his/her mental state, history of mental disturbances and thoughts about the future. Sometimes, the teen is asked to repeat numbers or phrases, or perform complex sorting tasks while the therapist times those responses. Teens who are suspected of drug abuse may be asked to submit hair or urine samples, so they can be screened for substances.

All of this testing may sound intrusive, but it truly is important. At the end of this process, parents will know exactly what issue is impacting the teen, and they can use this information to choose the proper school. In addition, the therapist may be able to advise the family on treatment options for the teen’s condition. Not all teen behavior issues must be addressed in an inpatient school setting. In fact, some issues might be best treated in an outpatient setting while the teen continues to live at home with the family. The therapist is certain to provide good insight on this question after completing a thorough evaluation of the child.

Preliminary Investigation

If the teen’s therapist believes that an inpatient program is best for the teen, the investigation process begins. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of these schools all across the United States, and choosing the right school might mean spending several weeks in private investigator mode, asking questions and looking over documentation.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, most of these programs are not regulated by the federal government, and therefore, their educational programs and mental health treatment programs are not periodically inspected for quality and conformance. The impetus is on the buyer to ask questions and make sure the facility is sound, long before the teen is enrolled. These are good questions to ask:

• Is your facility licensed by the state?
• What sort of academic program do you offer?
• What are the credentials of the people who will teach and treat my child?
• What sort of issue is your program designed to treat?
• How do you discipline participants?

Costs can vary dramatically from program to program as well, and sometimes, the costs aren’t covered by insurance programs in any way. In addition, some programs will eject the teen for bad behavior, and they will not refund any prepaid fees paid by the family. These are also good issues to clarify before the teen is enrolled.

According to an article published by PBS, some families choose a therapeutic facility based on arbitrary measures such as the cost of the facility or its proximity to the family home. It’s important to remember that the intervention is designed to improve the life of the teen both now and as the teen grows up. A facility that is inexpensive or close to home might be beneficial for the family right now, but it might not be the best sort of program to treat the teen’s long-term needs for health and recovery. Sometimes, it’s best to go through short-term inconveniences and choose the right program for the child based on its credentials, dedication to recovery and openness, rather than cost or location.

If the child is entering a facility for a substance abuse problem, there are additional questions that must be asked. For example, the National Institute on Drug Abuse suggests that recovery programs for people of all ages should be firmly rooted in science. The treatments offered must be studied and proven to work. Facilities that claim that they have “new” treatments or cures might not be firmly rooted in science. Programs that offer therapies such as medications, talk therapy, motivational incentives and group therapy might be better choices.

Take a Tour

According to AACAP, the environment the child must live in is one of the most important aspects to consider when choosing a therapeutic school. Teens often make snap judgments about facilities and how effective they will be based on how they look, smell and feel, and those first impressions can be very difficult to change once they are fully fixed in the teen’s mind. By walking through the facility and seeing it on a firsthand basis, parents can truly understand what the place will feel like for the teen as he/she lives there for an extended period. The facility should be clean and bright, but it should also be well-maintained, so the teen isn’t at risk for injury. Private spaces should also be included, so the teen can have individual therapy sessions.

At Newport Academy, we take this aspect of care incredibly seriously. Our facility is safe, clean and designed to match a teen’s aesthetic. We believe the first impression we make is overwhelmingly positive, and we’d love to show you the grounds. Please call us for more information.

A Word About Tough Love

Many schools for troubled teens pride themselves on providing a strict, no-frills environment where the teen will learn discipline or face severe consequences. This “tough love” approach was once quite popular in the field of adolescent therapy, but it has since fallen out of favor. As authors wrote in an article in Chicago Medicine, “Externally imposed behavioral sanctions are no better at changing teens than they are at regulating the behavior of citizens of repressive governments. At best, sanctions produce a fragile truce in the form of shallow cooperation or a smoldering, dissembling compliance, and at worst, they result in open rebellion and defiance.” In other words, tough love doesn’t always work if the goal is to change long-term behavior. The teen may comply without learning any lessons at all.

In the field of addiction, tough love can also be a bit cruel. People who abuse substances such as heroin or methamphetamine cause significant chemical changes in their brains that make it nearly impossible for them to stop abusing the substances without help. Often, the addicts desperately want to quit, but they’re simply unable to. Punishing them for something they cannot get past is not nearly as kind as helping them to get past the behavior using loving techniques backed by scientific principles. People with mental illnesses benefit from this approach as well, as they certainly may not be able to control their behavior. They may not even understand that their behavior is unacceptable in some way.

So while tough love might be tempting, it’s not the best approach for these troubled teens, and schools that employ this method certainly will not be the best choice for teens with mental illnesses or substance abuse issues. Cruel and unusual punishment is not the goal of a therapeutic recovery program. Recovery and long-term behavior modification are the goals. Choosing facilities that employ empathy can help parents avoid the tough-love trap.

If you have questions about schools for trouble teens, or would like information on our addiction treatment programs, which are specially designed for teens, contact us here at Newport Academy.