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THE TRUTH:
All segregated congregate care providers, including those
on our watch-list, are welcome to contact us to correct any information or
provide additional data that may assist with delivering the whole truth to the
public. We've found in many cases where this offer has been abused or
resulted in revealing additional basis for our concerns. For some examples
see:
http://www.heal-online.org/tcfl.htm,
http://www.heal-online.org/bolthouse.htm and
http://www.heal-online.org/abundant2.htm. Now, we are willing to
look at the facts and may have questions or require documentation backing up
any claims. We do verify licensing, academic backgrounds, and other
qualifications when investigating and researching programs on our watch-list
to assist consumers seeking additional information on such programs or victims
requiring assistance with getting corroborating evidence of their claims.
We do that in order to make sure the information we provide is accurate and
verified and cite our sources. In the event any information we've posted
is in error, we're happy to make a correction. And, for information on
how such requests are handled and have been resolved historically, see:
http://www.heal-online.org/requests.htm.
HEAL does not
support segregated congregate care for many reasons which include that many
such facilities are abusive, exploitative, fraudulent, and lack effective
oversight often as a result of fraudulent misrepresentation coupled with the
ignorance of those seeking to enroll loved ones in such facilities, programs,
schools, or centers without a valid court order and involuntarily. In
the United States such involuntary placements done without a court order are
apparently illegal as they either violate the Americans with Disabilities Act
community integration requirement or due process rights of those involuntarily
placed. Now, in regards to parents, in the United States parents have
the right to waive their own rights, but, not the rights of their minor
children. See
http://www.heal-online.org/legalarguments.htm for more information.
Now, most facilities on our watch list include waivers, indemnity clauses, and
sworn statements parents must sign assuring the program that the parents have
the right to make the placement involuntarily and without due process in a
segregated congregate care environment, however, California and federal
prosecutors as well as settled law appears to suggest that is not the case.
In fact, in the David Taylor case found at
http://www.heal-online.org/provocases.htm, Taylor sued Provo Canyon School
and his mother as co-defendants. His mother was found liable for 75% of
the damages awarded to Taylor as a result of multiple complaints including
false imprisonment, while the program was found only 25% liable because the
mother owed a duty of due diligence to investigate anyone to which she would
entrust care of her child and she failed to do so.
Now, HEAL
opposes segregated congregate care and we find most placements are happening
illegally in the USA which if the youth understood their rights would result
in unfortunate outcomes for the parents, particularly when they don't exercise
good judgment and support the fraud and abuse rather than their own children
when they need remedy and justice. And, HEAL supports all victims of
fraud and abuse in seeking remedies at law for any crimes or torts committed
against them. And, that's true whether or not the program or victims are
in the USA.
HEAL has a 5 point argument against segregated
congregate care we'd like you to consider:
a. Segregated care is
unconstitutional and a civil rights violation. It is only permissible if
a person is unable to survive independent of an institutional environment.
For more on this, watch the HEAL Report at
https://youtu.be/C4NzhZc4P0A.
Or, see:
http://www.ada.gov/olmstead/ which includes in part:
"United States v. Florida – 1:12-cv-60460 – (S.D. Fla.) – On April 7, 2016,
the United States filed an Opposition to the State of Florida’s Motion for
Partial Summary Judgment. In the Motion, the State had asked the Court
to rule, on a variety of grounds, that the United States could not recover
damages for unnecessarily institutionalized children to whom the State had
been deliberately indifferent."
b. Institutionalization is
always dehumanizing and coercive. Institutionalization always harms the
institutionalized and deprives them of protected civil rights. Dr. David
Straker, Psychiatry Professor at Columbia University's School of Medicine (Ivy
League) explains this in detail at
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/sociology/articles/institutionalization.htm.
"Many institutions, from prisons to monasteries to asylums, deliberately want
to control and manage their inmates such that they conform and do not cause
problems. Even in less harsh environments, many of the institutionalization
methods may be found, albeit in more moderated form (although the
psychological effect can be equally devastating)." (See website linked
in this paragraph for more info.)
c. Institutionalization is not
in the best interest of children. Institutions are not ever better for a
child than living with a loving family. Source:
http://www.unicef.org/cambodia/12681_23295.html
d. Reform schools, residential treatment programs, and other
segregated congregate care settings have been shown to be ineffective and
harmful. Best source on this currently is:
https://www.acgov.org/probation/documents/EndoftheReformSchoolbyVinny.doc
e. Boarding Schools, even the "good ones", result in a form of social
death, isolation, and cause both anxiety and depression. Therefore, it
is clearly not in the best interest of the youth subjected to those
environments. Sources:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jun/08/boarding-school-syndrome-joy-schaverien-review
and
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/11662001/The-truth-about-boarding-school-syndrome.html
Beyond the above arguments against segregated congregate care, we have
reports from the NIH, Surgeon General, Yale University Studies, and much more
showing the methodologies of behavior modification are damaging, harmful, and
ineffective. You can request these documents via
e-mail. In addition, for such programs offering academic services or
claiming to offer diplomas, certifications, or the like, it is important to
check to see if it is a diploma mill with no accredited academic services.
Please see:
http://heal-online.blogspot.com/2019/01/avoiding-scams-what-you-need-to-know.html
for important information on how to avoid education/training scams.
If
you'd like to see what HEAL suggests rather than segregated congregate care
(i.e. committing a crime or tort against your child if done against their will
without a court order), please see:
http://heal-online.blogspot.com/2017/05/fix-your-family-help-your-teen.html
Now, we have many programs on our watch list including this one and we
do our best to update the site regularly with any new information. And,
we appreciate public participation in information gathering and your support.
If you have a complaint against this facility, please file a complaint
with the appropriate law enforcement agency or your home state's attorney
general. For reporting resources see:
http://www.heal-online.org/report.htm. If you have entrusted care of a loved one to this
facility, please consider bringing them home because even in the "good ones",
it causes anxiety and depression to be segregated.
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