Boarding Schools for Troubled Teens

According to the American Psychological Association, nearly one million youth today end up in criminal difficulty, but less than 200,000 teens actually receive help in residential treatment programs. Many will end up in juvenile detention facilities instead not receiving the help they need in terms of therapeutic programs for depression, peer issues, and the causes that lead them to substance abuse.

Youth of all ages and gender crave freedom as they grow from being a pre-pubescent, teen-hood, through young adulthood, and many have not developed the coping skills that help them to navigate through all that physical changes and peer pressure that comes with these years of development. They also lack an understanding regarding life skills including money management, critical thinking skills for problem-solving, and how to maintain a steady job, properly in order to survive independently of their parents.

Diamond Ranch Academy (DRA) can help with troubled teens and all of the issues that go along with being a youth in today’s world. Their focus is on a therapeutically individualized approach that customizes the care of each teen to their specific needs.
All the therapists at DRA are state licensed in Utah and the academic instructors hold certification through the Northwest Association accreditation in Utah as well as the Utah State Office of Education.

The core component of the DRA’s six treatment programs is to develop a sense of self-awareness in each teen that will help them to grow in self-confidence and understand where their passion lies in life to move forward on their own in a positive, constructive way to achieve success as an adult.

The programs located on the DRA 55-acre campus not only involve academics and personalized therapy, but a strong athletics program, a performing arts program, field trips for hands-on life experiences, and life-skills classes including vocational training, as well as a multitude of opportunities to interact with their peers in a smaller social setting for more quality relationship-building.

The Real Life Transition Program lets each teen experience real-world situations and to practice how to react positively and productively in the moment that a situation occurs. It also gives them an opportunity to make mistakes in a controlled and safe setting and discuss their actions with trained faculty who will explain alternatives to them of how to act and react in everyday life situations in a positive way to ensure that teens understand that the outcome based on how they react can have life-altering consequences and how they can avoid these outcomes simply by learning how to respond differently. This includes the idea of coping in a healthy and positive way instead of resorting to negative behavior and even drugs or alcohol to get through a bad situation of their own making.

When a teen arrives at DRA, they first participate in a seven-day orientation on campus where the staff gets to know them personally as they are shown the entire campus and all that DRA has to offer them. This includes discussions with parents as well so that it is a combined effort between parents and DRA to help improve the quality of life for each teen that stays at Diamond Ranch Academy.

DRA programs and staff can help parents to face the hardships of dealing with a troubled teen who may be dealing with issues such as academic truancy, acting out at home, depression, feelings of suicide, low self-esteem, bullying, poor academic performance leading to behavioral issues, and substance abuse. All of these factors once addressed at DRA, can vastly improve the quality of life of every teen that walks through the Diamond Ranch Academy doors.