Boarding school for teens have been around for nearly 300 years. The Coalition for Residential Education states that a boarding school for teens is defined as an environment that is based on a communal design where teens can be educated as well as live in much the same way that they are used in their family environments. Their mission is usually to create a safe and stable setting to nurture and educate teens (http://www.residentialeducation.org/whatis/index.html).
The value of sending the trouble teens to a boarding school or residential treatment for teens environment has been studied by the Royal Wanstead Children’s Foundation in the U.K., found that after having at-risk teens in this type of environment who stayed two or more years, 39% were the top students in their classes both academically and socially. The study also concluded that for at-risk teens, a residential treatment can transform trouble teens into confident and less vulnerable youth. Read more of this study at http://www.educationcoordinatingcouncil.org
Residential Treatment for Teens
The goal of a residential treatment environment for teens is to help teens who are in some way struggling with any number of issues that are affecting them mentally and deterring them from achieving their goals in their young life that could lead them into making dangerous mistakes through adulthood.
The goal is always to have the teen move on to a lower level of treatment and to gradually move away from treatment altogether and achieve a level of confidence to use their own critical thinking skills to make decisions about their actions and their future on their own that will best suit a positive future outcome.
What Parents Should Look For In a Residential Treatment Boarding School
When parents make the choice to involve a professional facility like residential treatment for teens, they need to research aspects of the facility before they make a decision on which program is best:
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- Find out if the treatment facility is licensed and what they are licensed for—i.e. educational programs, mental health, behavioral health, residential housing. Then, check the name of the agency at the state level that issued the license (s), (it may be several different agencies depending on how many licenses have been issued).
- Contact the state health department to see if they have ever been cited for any health code violations including food violations, supervision violations, environmental violations, and more serious violations involving abuse.
- If there is an education program for your teen, make sure that when they successfully complete their time at the residential boarding school, their credits for the courses that they took will transfer to their high school or to a college of their choice.
- Check with the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) to make sure that the residential treatment boarding school that you chose is accredited and certified specifically for behavioral health.
- Ask about the credentials of the staff as well as the director of the treatment facility to make sure they have degrees in the specific areas that they are giving your teen help in.
- Did all the facility employees have to pass a background check?
- Ask how your teen will be assessed for consideration to be enrolled in the residential treatment program.
- Assess by their list of programs and staff credentials whether the treatment facility is able to handle the needs of your teen.
- Will your teen be given a program that specifically fits his or her needs?
- Find out how the residential program handles any unforeseen medical emergencies or injuries that might occur.
- Ask specifically how they deal with undisciplined youth and the procedures in place for issues like this that might arise.
- Know what their policies are about your contact with your teen while he or she is enrolled in the residential boarding school.
- Be clear regarding the cost and what that money will get your teen in the program.
Look for more info through the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services at: https://www.cdc.gov/mentalhealth/
hat Are The Benefits Of Sending Your Troubled Teen To a Residential Treatment Boarding School?
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- Consulting professionals regarding an issue with a troubled teen in your life can avoid the following issues that affect parents:
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Keeping your teen in an unsafe environment where they may be a danger to others and to themselves is alleviated
- Not abandoning your child to the streets and being on their own because you feel like you have to give them an ultimatum or practice “tough love”
- When you are not equipped with professional therapeutic skills to handle the level of help that your teen needs
- The feeling of relief to admit that a professional will probably do a better job with your teen at reaching them from a more objective point of view than you can
- Letting professionals take over in helping your teen so that it will no longer affect the dynamics of the entire family adversely.
How Diamond Ranch Academy Can Help Your Teen Overcome Their Issues
Diamond Ranch can do the following to help your teen through their unique and engaging programs:
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- Enlighten them about what their true and full potential really is as an individual
- Form unique relationships in a horsemanship program that allows them to practice relationship skills alongside the mentoring of a trained professional
- Therapy that happens outside an office environment to allow the therapist to get to know teens in multiple environments and build a trusting relationship with one another.
- Career and Life-Skills classes to teach teens how to develop problem-solving skills, workplace skills, and to begin to explore where their career interests might be including skills related to specific vocational training.
- Student educational studies in small groups of up to 8 for practice in collaborative learning skills
- Specialized instruction for students with special education needs
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Diamond Ranch Academy serves its teen population by teaching them empowerment through strategies, skills, and setting the right goals to be successful.
