GAO Study on Abuse in “Boot Camp” October 11, 2007
Posted by dianedepanfilis in Harmful Programs.trackback
Usually when we review the “evidence” about programs or interventions, we are in the position of concluding “insufficient” evidence to suggest that an intervention is efficacious or effective, however, in some situations, we need to guard against “help” that is harmful. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today citing thousands of abuse of youth in Residential Treatment Programs - specifically “Boot Camp” or programs categorized as “wilderness therapy,” intense military-style discipline and other methods. This industry is a largely unregulated cottage industry where youth have been warehoused and abused. Between 1990 and 2004, the GAO found that at least 10 deaths of youth were attributed to poor management and poorly trained staff. You can read more about this in the Washington Post today at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR2007101000825.html?sub=AR
OR - better yet, you can download the full report from
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d08146t.pdf
This is an important piece of work by the GAO, clearly adding boot camps and certain types of wilderness programs to those programs that we already know of us concerning or dangerous (i.e., holding therapy).
These reports often fail to mention that there are evidence based interventions that do reduce the likelihood of delinquent behavior and, were they more available, families would be less inclined to send their children away to programs with unknown efficacy.
The Washington State Institute on Public Policy (WSIPP) has been a leader in reviewing such programs. They issued a report this summer on program efficacy with regard to reducing delinquent behavior. The ESIs tha they mention include include Aggression Replacement Training (ART), Functional Family Therapy (FFT), MST, and Restorative Justice, http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/rptfiles/07-06-1201.pdf. It’s worth noting that some residential programs do include these interventions–e.g., Woodbourne in Baltimore includes but ART and Restorative Justice.
Your readers might be interested in my work in this area, which was the first to detail the history of this industry, expose the lack of evidence for its practices, connect the various forms of “tough love” and give parents information on alternatives that *are* evidence-based.
My book is called Help at Any Cost: How The Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids and can be purchased (insanely cheaply) at Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594489106/sr=8-1/qid=1142462084/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5942672-2562257?%5Fencoding=UTF8