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How to Save a
Troubled Kid: Avoid Reading Time magazine on Tough Love
November 16 2004
By: Maia Szalavitz
In a “state of the
science” conference in October, the National Institutes for Health (NIH)
released a consensus statement saying that tough treatments –
including so-called “boot camps” for troubled teenagers – “do not
work.” They also warned that “there is some evidence that they may
make the problem worse rather than simply not working.” But in the
November 22 issue of Time magazine, the “state of the science” is
almost completely ignored in an account that highlights the positive
aspects of a highly profitable tough love chain.
Time’s “How to Save
a Troubled Kid?” focused on a teen with bipolar disorder, whose
father said that the Montana-based Spring Creek Lodge program, a
tough love program affiliated with the World Wide Association of
Specialty Programs (WWASP), “improved his attitude and sense of
responsibility.”
In an 1,800-word
article, Time included just two sentences about the NIH’s findings.
It didn’t explain, for instance, that years of research are
summarized in NIH consensus statements, which are issued when the
state of the science is believed to be good enough to draw basic
conclusions about treatments.
And while Time
acknowledged that WWASP had one program shut down in Mexico for
abuse, the magazine failed to mention that WWASP has had at least
five affiliates closed following reports of abuse and human rights
violations. The Mexican government alone raided and closed three
WWASP programs: Sunrise Beach, High Impact and Casa by The Sea.
At High Impact,
police took video of teens housed outdoors in dog cages, which later
aired on Inside Edition. The Costa Rican government shut Dundee
Ranch Academy, reporting human rights violations. One official there
told the media that “In Costa Rica, we don’t even allow that kind of
punishment for our prison inmates,” citing the use of isolation
rooms in which teens were made to kneel for hours.
The U.S. State
Department documented abuse at WWASP’s Samoa facility, which closed
following an investigation by the Samoan government. The Czech
Republic also raided a WWASP facility there and documented abuse.
Brightway Hospital, which WWASP ran in Utah, was closed after the
state found licensing violations like failure to report abuse
allegations. Congressman George Miller (D-California) has at least
twice called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate the
program.
If the NIH had said
a cancer or AIDS treatment provided by an organization with such a
controversial history was ineffective and possibly harmful, would a
reputable news organization counter with a story that focused
instead on anecdotal claims that the treatment worked?
Stats Senior
Fellow, Maia Szalavitz is the author of a forthcoming book
investigating tough love treatments, to be published in 2005 by
Riverhead Books. |
