Children/Teen Mental Health Services/Facilities

MadAlice

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*Anyone who would like to answer any of this from personal experience can do so in any way they like. PM, answer here, confidentially or not. If you have some other way you'd like to share information, let me know. I know that memories can be painful.


I would like to hear from anyone who:

As a teen (or child) was placed briefly (or for years) in any kind of residential treatment facility, particularly for mental health services--rightly or wrongly, doesn't matter to me unless you want to tell me.

OR

May have worked in such a facility and have insight on the other side of the treatment

-------
What I'd like to know:

Everything or as much as you're comfortable saying. How you got there, how you were treated, what sort of therapy/education/activities/etc was provided, what you ate, good experiences AND bad (as much as you want to tell), your reactions to treatments or diagnoses--especially if you disagreed, interactions with other patients, how parents or other family acted or treated you, what happened when you left.


*Obviously, if you don't want to talk about it, don't. But if you do, I'm happy to listen.
 

MurderOfCrows

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Google World Wide Association of Schools and Programs.


They run the largest collection of brat camps / 'mental health facilities' for youth in the nation. I've researched them before because I'm using them in a piece (and their schools) and where I live is one of the two states that has the highest concentration of these programs and have been the sites of multiple deaths.


They are the #1 provider for "rehab" programs for teens. They've also literally been kicked out of countries for human rights abuses and mass deaths. Mental health for kids right now is in a very horrible place, and it can get pretty abusive.


I was personally not sent to a facility/camp, but had some experiences with bad groups w/ violent offenders (i was not violent) / psyche treatment, so I can answer those questions as needed. Feel free to PM.
 

bombergirl69

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Wow..."brat camps" --never heard that term before, thankfully.
Teen services vary a lot. This is the website for Shodair https://shodair.org/ where I have had many clients go. Most had pretty positive experiences there but you can check out the site and see if it gives you a better feel. They do take violent offenders as well as many, many who are not, and consult with providers around the State. They are fully staffed, obviously and offer a range of psychiatric services. That's a lot different than the private schools for troubled kids (which assumes a higher level of emotional regulation.) Working there, in terms of job satisfaction, varies, depending on the case load, level of expertise (can vary a lot), level of supervision, time off and so on. Most of my colleagues find the work with kids to be very rewarding and do stuff like take them to the gym, skiing, rafting, hiking and so on. They do a fair amount of coaching problem solving skills as well. Interacting with parents is likely the most stressful.
 

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I find the term 'brat camp' offensive. I despise whoever coined it. I was not a brat---that implies behaviour problems, not mental health issues. Which is something I had to deal with the ENTIRE time I was a kid/teen. The BRAT syndrome.


I can tell you loads, but it might be outdated. I spent LOADS of time in these places in the early 80s through to the mid 80s. It may have changed a lot since then. Case in point...the wards were chainsmoking factories at the time. (-: Even the ones inside hospitals...where there were mental health wards...
 

MurderOfCrows

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Brat Camps is a fairly well known term for them, since they were often abused by parents who didn't know what to do with their kids. They got people with legit disorders all the way to people who just didn't like their stepmom and whose parents didn't know what to do with them. Transkid? Brat camp. Depression due to moving? Selfish shit goes to a brat camp. Seriously violent outbursts? Brat camp. Sometimes the parent could privately send them, sometimes hardline judges could send them as an alternative to juvenile detention.


For a real eye opener, Google "School of Shock", a Mother Jones article about one of these for the intensely disabled that has literally killed children with full body shock harnesses. This shit is 100% real and 100% awful, and has been for a very long time.


WWASP facilities would take literally anyone, and the drug boom really gave them a boost in funding + inmates. Seriously, these things are monstrous and need to be shut down, but there'll always a parent somewhere who has more money than sense to funnel their kids in.

These places are often treated as a 'legimate' place to send troubled and mentally ill teens. There are good, often positive places in the world, I'm sure -- but there's an ugly underbelly profitting off abuse and kids get stuck in it.
 

bombergirl69

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I agree with L.E.N. what specifically are you looking for?

And yes to smoking, both staff and kids!

No, in professional circles, people do not talk about "brat camps." Seriously? The kids may have their own terms (I'm sure they do!) but even talking with tired, overwhelmed, jaded, cynical I-hate-my-job staff, never heard that. A friend of mine and colleague led kids on wilderness trips, a very tough job, but still had so much respect for the tenacious survivors the kids are.
 

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No, in professional circles, people do not talk about "brat camps." Seriously? The kids may have their own terms (I'm sure they do!) but even talking with tired, overwhelmed, jaded, cynical I-hate-my-job staff, never heard that. A friend of mine and colleague led kids on wilderness trips, a very tough job, but still had so much respect for the tenacious survivors the kids are.

Thank you for this! (-:
 

MadAlice

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Hi everyone! Thanks for the responses. I'm specifically looking for accounts from those who as children or teens were in these facilities. Anything they would want to share about how they were treated and their entire experience--what it was like in daily life there.
The purpose is just to get a general idea so that I can give my character some genuine experience.

edit: I would mostly like the POV of the patients. There will be no escaping. The character in my story will have been sent there because of an incident in which someone was injured or died, and she was suspected of causing the incident (likely a fire). As a young adult, she is released into the world and that's where the story really begins, but I would to make her experience as authentic as possible.
 
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L.E.N. Andov

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...accounts from those who as children or teens were in these facilities...what it was like in daily life there...the POV of the patients...

Ok, got it.

Id like to put forward one concept which might be easy to overlook. Some patients just "don't get it." They accept the situation they are in as "just my life." They don't realize that they are side-lined because the question never occurs to them to ask it. They have never been the architect of their own outcomes. Their structure, rules, punishments, have always been provided by someone else. They are better suited to adapting than designing. Dunno if I communicated that effectively. Dig me for more if you want to.

Staff members clock in and go to work then they clock out and go home. Some are friendly, some are dix. The patients wake up in an institution and go to sleep in an institution. There are two realities superimposed there. Staff members have turnover and so do patients.

Parents come to visit, or never do. Mail arrives still sealed but must be opened in front of staff (to make sure there's no contraband inside).

Meal times are a highlight of the day. Its organized much like school. Line up, good manners, clean up your area. Eating is very primal.

There's rumors of additives in the food for behavior modification or libido suppression.

Fraternization is always a no-no. No kissing kind of relationships. You can't hold hands and you can't pass love notes. Some always do. Staff routinely confiscates love notes.

Television is a big deal. Movies on the weekends. News is rare and given high respect. Everyone is aware of the importance of learning what's going on "on the outside."

There's always a bully. At least one. One on the boy's side and one on the girl's side. Sometimes they didn't come in with it.

I'd be happy to know if your character is resentful of their experience or grateful. Another way to ask might be, "did she drink the koolaid?"
 

MadAlice

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Ok, got it.

Id like to put forward one concept which might be easy to overlook. Some patients just "don't get it." They accept the situation they are in as "just my life." They don't realize that they are side-lined because the question never occurs to them to ask it. They have never been the architect of their own outcomes. Their structure, rules, punishments, have always been provided by someone else. They are better suited to adapting than designing. Dunno if I communicated that effectively. Dig me for more if you want to.

Staff members clock in and go to work then they clock out and go home. Some are friendly, some are dix. The patients wake up in an institution and go to sleep in an institution. There are two realities superimposed there. Staff members have turnover and so do patients.

Parents come to visit, or never do. Mail arrives still sealed but must be opened in front of staff (to make sure there's no contraband inside).

Meal times are a highlight of the day. Its organized much like school. Line up, good manners, clean up your area. Eating is very primal.

There's rumors of additives in the food for behavior modification or libido suppression.

Fraternization is always a no-no. No kissing kind of relationships. You can't hold hands and you can't pass love notes. Some always do. Staff routinely confiscates love notes.

Television is a big deal. Movies on the weekends. News is rare and given high respect. Everyone is aware of the importance of learning what's going on "on the outside."

There's always a bully. At least one. One on the boy's side and one on the girl's side. Sometimes they didn't come in with it.

I'd be happy to know if your character is resentful of their experience or grateful. Another way to ask might be, "did she drink the koolaid?"

Thanks for your response! This will be very helpful
I don't have her fully fleshed out yet, but she did spend nearly all of her teen years locked away. She knows she's not mentally ill, but the incident that got her there was her fault (she's got a paranormal power coming in, she was trying to protect herself, lit a dude on fire, no physical evidence she actually started the fire but she gets locked up anyway, in a mental institution). So she feels like she does belong there, but not for the reasons people think. She isn't a pyromaniac, nor is she "crazy," even though sometimes she thinks she must be, because NO ONE CAN START FIRES, right. Also, it's not your run of the mill starting random fires from nothing. Her deal is electrical. I hope I'm not losing you here. No one knows she can do this stuff, they think she just started a fire because she's off in the head. So she's been all over the place, from being resentful, to feeling like she deserves to be locked up, to just trying to survive, to not wanting to survive. Even after her release at 18, she's not landed on any one of those emotions yet, and that's where the story actually begins.
 

KTC

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MurderOfCrows

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I agree with L.E.N. what specifically are you looking for?

And yes to smoking, both staff and kids!

No, in professional circles, people do not talk about "brat camps." Seriously? The kids may have their own terms (I'm sure they do!) but even talking with tired, overwhelmed, jaded, cynical I-hate-my-job staff, never heard that. A friend of mine and colleague led kids on wilderness trips, a very tough job, but still had so much respect for the tenacious survivors the kids are.


Google Brat Camp. You'll find plenty of places ADVERTISING as "Brat Camp", along with "Boot Camp" for troubled teens. Judges also funnel criminal cases into these camps as an alternative for Juvenile Detention or actual jail. This term is in professional use, and I'm not sure why you're arguing otherwise.

For the OP, you might also want to google WWASP Survivors. There are some forums + message boards that give accounts of what it was like in the program. If your character has potential criminal charges but they can't prove mental illness, she's probably going to end up in one of these programs or in juvenile detention.

If the setting is even close to modern day, remember Reagan absolutely gutted mental health funding in the 80s, and it lead to a flood of people from healthcare into the streets and directly into county jails (As I have worked corrections and can tell you all about the adult end of this.) Actually being put in a real mental health facility is going to be exceedingly difficult anytime past the 80's and will take severe mental illness to get her there.
 

bombergirl69

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Google Brat Camp. You'll find plenty of places ADVERTISING as "Brat Camp", along with "Boot Camp" for troubled teens. Judges also funnel criminal cases into these camps as an alternative for Juvenile Detention or actual jail. This term is in professional use, and I'm not sure why you're arguing otherwise.

.

Because I work in the field (psychologist), and professionals do not refer to "brat camps." If the kids do, the kids do, but among actual professionals, of course not. I also find the term offensive and I did google it and it looks like the term came from a TV show.
 

Xelebes

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Google World Wide Association of Schools and Programs.


They run the largest collection of brat camps / 'mental health facilities' for youth in the nation. I've researched them before because I'm using them in a piece (and their schools) and where I live is one of the two states that has the highest concentration of these programs and have been the sites of multiple deaths.


They are the #1 provider for "rehab" programs for teens. They've also literally been kicked out of countries for human rights abuses and mass deaths. Mental health for kids right now is in a very horrible place, and it can get pretty abusive.


I was personally not sent to a facility/camp, but had some experiences with bad groups w/ violent offenders (i was not violent) / psyche treatment, so I can answer those questions as needed. Feel free to PM.

Be warned that not all facilities operate with a Synanon regime. These tend to be called Therapeutic Boarding Schools and yes, they have a bunch of derogatory names due to the shady medical and business practices associated with them. Residential medical services for teenagers vary but the ones being operated by licensed physicians are for the most part above board and have their ducks in a row. They will operate like a medical facility as you would expect as say a hospital.
 

Phyllo

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From the brief description you provided, it sounds like your MC's history at this facility might have been anywhere from 5 to 50 years ago. What era and location is this taking place in? Location may or may not be determinative, but era would. There's been quite an evolution in terms of services and philosophies/attitudes in the last 50 years.
 

MurderOfCrows

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In researching for my own works on the affects of solitary, I found this account of Juvenile Detention Centers. Again, not a mental health facility, but still a possible condition that your MC may have dealt with depending on what sort of facility she ended up at.
 

JulianneQJohnson

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I worked in two different residential treatment facilities for children. These are places that used to be orphanages, but nowadays have switched to treatment facilities. The truth is that children without issues don't stay in residential more than a few days and then they are placed into foster care. (I'm in the USA, by the way.)

95% of the children I worked with were violent, at least at times. 100% of the children I worked with suffered abuse at some point in their lives. These are children who move from facility to psych ward to facility to foster care with their belongings packed in a garbage bag. They take their few possessions everywhere they go, or they lose them.

A good day was when we could keep everyone calm and didn't have to use Safe Crisis Management (Physically holding children so they cannot harm themselves or others.) A good day rarely meant we were able to teach the residents things that would help them. Some days, if we could get them to all sit down and eat without fighting then we were awesome. The units are overcrowded and under staffed. Resident injuries were rare, and caused by things like playing ball or falling off a bike. Staff injury was common and ranged from scratches and bites to broken ribs. I can't tell you how many times a child threatened me with a chair held over their head, but I was luckily never hit with one.

Children most often became violent when something caused a flashback to bad times, or when they were frightened. These kids suffer from PTSD, and the fight instinct was more common than the flight, though we had that too.

Training for staff was incomplete at both places I worked. Physical holds are taught extensively, as mandated by the state. Most staff I worked with had little understanding of the psychological side of resident's treatment, and could accidently escalate violent behavior rather than deescalate.

There aren't enough beds. Because of this, and because of inbounds honest desire to take in and help as many children as possible, children were put into units they had no business being in. 13 year olds that became violent with young children were housed in the same unit as five year olds. The few non-violent children waiting for foster care placement were thrown in with violent children. One such child related to me how terrifying it was to watch 3 adults hold a violent child on the floor on her first night in placement. Children, who have few to no issues when they arrive, end up with issues if they stay in placement very long.

Residents see a counselor once a week for 30 minutes, if they are lucky. They see a psychiatrist once every month or two. These visits rarely last more than five minutes. The psychiatrist asks if they are having any trouble with their meds, and then says b-bye. Understandably, with so little actual psychological help, these children have little chance of improvement. Most mental care is left to those staff that work with the kiddos on a daily basis, barely trained staff such as I was.

I knew a 10 year old girl who had already had over 50 placements. I knew a girl who was driven to the homeless shelter and dropped off on her 18th birthday. I knew a 14 year girl who ran away from the home, showed her boobs to passing motorists to get a ride, and was picked up by an older man. I also knew the awesome, underpaid and overworked staff member who ran down that car on foot and shouted at the driver until he kicked the girl out of his car. I worked with a large tween boy who was a psychopath, and did things like throw bricks from the landscaping at other residents to "see what would happen." He was housed with residents as young as five. I had a full out argument on the phone with incoming about how they could not house a teen boy who had been convicted of raping younger children with the pre-teen sexually active girls I had on my unit. I won that one. I worked with so many teen girls who were basically thrown away by their family. It made me wonder at how broken our society is that we throw away our teen girls. Every city could build two more residential places for teen girls, and there still wouldn't be enough beds.

This was all in residential placement. A client had to do something pretty horrible to be sent to a psychiatric hospital.

I want to be clear about one thing, few daily staff were there just to pick up a paycheck. Let's face it, at 10 bucks an hour, there are safer jobs. Most staff had suffered some sort of abuse as kiddos themselves, and were there to try to help. Our kiddos were broken and violent, and we loved them like they were our own kids. It is difficult and heartbreaking work, in a place where the system doesn't seem to care much about helping the kids. Many staff don't make it past a few years. Most new staff don't make it past a few weeks. I miss my kiddos, but the job got too dangerous for me, and it made me too sad.

As broken as the system seems, as scarce as beds are, children at least have mental care facilities to go to. Adults often end up on the street.

I am happy to answer any more questions you have. I will not disclose exactly where I worked, or anything overly specific about the kiddos in respect to their privacy.
 
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