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The term treatment program usually indicates that there
is some kind of therapy or psychiatric care involved within the program.
A lot of the program�s and school�s popping up today are more of a boarding
school than a treatment program. There are two schools of thought regarding
treatment programs. First, from the professional you will usually be urged
to include some therapy in what ever placement you settle on. This is good
if the teen is cooperative.
Most of the teen�s we deal with are not willing to do anything their parents
want them to. Their feeling is: (I don't have a problem, let my parent get
therapy they are the one that has a problem, or if they will leave me alone
I will be fine). If you don�t have a willing participant therapy obviously
will not work. The second thought is if you can get the teen to start to
accept the fact that they have a problem and need help they will want to
make changes in their life. Sometimes they will work themselves out of the
negative situation they are in. This of course would not be the case if
there are underlying issues of abuse, or problems similar to fetal alcohol
syndrome, or detachment disorders etc.
There are of course a myriad of diagnosis that are thrown around today.
This is not said to undermine the psychiatric community in anyway. It is
possible however that the teen may just been in need of structure and discipline
rather than medication and therapy. With the broad variety of programs now
available you should be able to find one that will include therapy and behavior
modification, or just one or the other. You will find that you will get
a different answer from just about everyone you talk to. You will receive
advice from just about everyone.
The decision still ultimately rests on your shoulders, and you will have
to live with the consequences. The best advice is to do what you feel is
right. After having collected all of the information and having eliminated
programs that you know definitely wont work you should be left with a few
good choices. Finances are always a consideration, they aren�t the main
factor, and of course you will do what ever you can to save your child�s
life, but you can only help as much as you are financially able.
A parent should never consider themselves a failure for having to choose
an treatment program. When your child is sick with a fever you take them
to the Dr. He is able to help because he has been trained to do so. If your
teen is in need of behavioral help, it is equally as important to seek help
with from someone that has had success in doing so. This is in no way a
sign of failure but one of strength that you had the ability to do what
was best, even though it may have been the most difficult choice.
