Representing Survivors of So-Called Troubled Teen Industry Programs

For far too long multiple institutions and programs have hidden behind a false façade of providing rehabilitation and therapeutic services to allegedly “troubled” teens.

These programs include residential treatment centers, therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness programs and boot camps. There are hundreds of programs throughout the country (and world) that have inflicted severe emotional, physical, sexual and medication abuse on teenagers over the past several decades. The programs and facilities are privately run, with little to no governmental oversight. Over the years, the programs have become a multi-billion-dollar industry, often now referred to as the troubled teen industry (“TTI”).

In a nutshell, the troubled teen industry is a network of under-regulated, powerful and punitive residential facilities that claim to ‘fix’ youth using ‘tough love’ and other non-evidence based practices,” said Meg Appelgate, CEO of Unsilenced, a nonprofit serving survivors of the TTI. These programs have been referred to as “a concentration camps,” “militaristic, abusive and unregulated,” “inhumane prison” “where they tried to murder children’s souls.”

Too many kids have died in these programs, many who have survived a program later take their life by suicide or accidentally overdose while trying to self-medicate to cope with the trauma they suffer from these programs. Those who are still with us struggle every day with post-traumatic stress disorder. The trauma manifests in ways that prohibit them from trusting others and hinder their ability to reach their full potential in life and love.

It’s time for TTI survivors to take their power back and put an end to these programs. We are here to help.