Near Virgin in Utah a boot camp styled facility named Liahona Academy is located. According to photos the boy’s heads are shaved. It is modeled as a place for punishment and nothing good can emerge from a stay in this program. In the public the facility is only known because a boy died there in 2010. A boy who might been able to live the last few of his months hanging out with his friends and partying but was robbed of this opportunity due to his placement at Liahona Academy. Based on interviews of his friends we learned of a young man with appetite on life. Sad to imagine that he wasn’t allowed to live what was left of his life in freedom among his friends.

Years of research has proven that the worst thing you can do with an issue is to confront it. Instead nursing, coaching and encouragement based on respect of the social heritage will contribute to a balanced motivation for life. There is no such thing as underachievement. Children become what they are born to become based on the experiences of both birthparents.

When one parent is withheld from the child the child is not getting all the stimulus the child needs to be a complete human being. Even the most poorly educated therapist will know that. It doesn’t matter if this parent is in agreement with the treatment plan or not. Whatever progress achieved in the program will be destroyed once the child reemerge in the society again because the day comes where the child turns 18 and doesn’t have to respect any visitation plan or any custodial agreement made in court.

In a case we got notice of therapist Brian Parker who had aided a father in hiding his son at Liahona Academy out of reach from his mother. Of course the mother hope that her son somehow would escape the prison Liahona is designed as with it walls all around the facility located in a deserted area but because it is designed as a prison it was not possible. More than a year the mother didn’t have any communication with her son. In Utah custodial agreements in other states are not respected.

Because this therapist seems to have broken one of the elementary rules in this case we can only urge people to refrain from obtaining his services. We have asked some of the organizations we work with to investigate Liahona Academy.

We are not saying that Liahona Academy killed the boy we mentioned in the start but as a parent think about that you never know when life - your own or your childs - is over. Be with them as much as possible.

Source:
Taylor Mangham (15) died from complications of a brain aneurysm (Mydeathspace)

A girl is sent to a Utah boarding school by court order which was manipulated by her father.

The girl and her mother have been living peacefully for some time when her father (Long time out of the picture) wanted to be a part of her life.

She didn't want that due to court intervention she is being banished to the desert each of Hurricane to some kind of boarding school named Diamond Ranch Academy.

There are many negative stories about this particular school on the internet. Due to some legal circumstances the boarding school was forced to move from Idaho after an intervention by the social services.

We will ask you to sign a petition against her banishment. Hopefully the media interest will result in her being returned before she is too damaged by the harsh treatment at the school. A school where a boy died in 2009.

Source:
Save Victoria from Diamond Ranch Academy (Ipetition)

A 19 year old woman committed suicide due to the depression over a massage she felt became to intimate.

The facility was for young people suffering from various abuse problems. During her enrollement she was "offered" massage from one of the male staff members.

She claimed that she became afraid over the incident but no additional supervision was imposed once she told the medical staff about the incident.

She hang herself in the shower. Suicide by hanging at such facilities are not that uncommon. If we look across the ocean two very high profile cases did happen at Spring Creek Lodge featured in CNN in a television program about the narcotic drug known as Meth. Also at Island View, which is a high profile residential treatment facility in Utah owned by one of the largest companies in the rehab business (Aspen Education Group) saw a suicide committed in the shower.

The problem is very much the quality of the staff. There must be rules which disallowed staff to handle residents on their own when the clothing is removed. The staff involved in such incident should be of the same gender as the resident.

But it always comes down to money. It might never be perfect.

References:
Nya Skandaler på behanlingshem (Expressen.se)
Spring Creek Lodge (WWASPinfo)
Teen Facility targets suicide prevention (Deseret News)