National Association of Social Workers

*Currently, there is no singular regulatory body that ensures the safety of youth in residential treatment. As a result, *some* programs engage in unethical practices that have no basis in research.  As a result, social workers may find themselves needing to step in as healing agents to mend the harm done by other professionals.  Very often, these youth  who are diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities find their rights compromised - particularly in the context of their age.  Because these programs commit emotional, physical, and sexual abuse (as well as educational neglect) in the name of "therapy", social workers must be prepared to engage in therapeutic techniques to mitigate the effects of symptoms for those who experienced the effects of trauma akin to torture.

(a)Youth placed in unregulated (for-profit) residential treatment centers have no guarantee of maintaining their human rights - or of receiving the healing support to which they are entitled.  As a result, many leave these programs in a greater need of support and understanding than when they entered.

(b)CAFETY intends to share the realities of some of these programs and will present data collected from survivor surveys and interviews.  Quotations from CAFETY’s testimony before Congress in 2007 and 2008 will also be shared.  The session will illustrate the long-reaching effects of harmful programs on both the youth and their families, (many of whom mortgage their homes in order to pay for what they truly believe to be vital treatment for the teen in question). The presentation will highlight the need for enhanced Social Work oversight and governmental regulation to ensure no young person is harmed in the name of treatment.  CAFETY will also show ways in which youth, freed from such facilities, can receive a healing-centered response from Social Workers with whom they later come in contact in the immediate aftermath and as they mature into adulthood. The importance of family-involved, community-centric care, where feedback from youth is included, will be emphasized.

(c)Social Workers, concerned parents, and all interested parties are encouraged to attend.  Social Workers in particular will benefit from the knowledge about the reality of what their clients may have experienced.

(d)With this awareness, these social workers will have a stronger ability to pursue healing methods to strengthen the intrinsic resiliency of their client.  Furthermore, the presentation will propose policy changes necessary to ensure that when a youth is in crisis, they receive the most optimally healing response.

(e) This program will inform Social Workers about risk/resiliency-factors of residential treatment, how to assess program’s ethics and capacity for healing, and how to guide parents who are considering placement for their teen.

(f) We hope that participants will come away from the program educated as to the realities of programs, many of which lack any form of an empirical research-base, with regard to the potential harms they are doing to vulnerable young people and to the name of Social Work.  Further social worker attention is encouraged for all programs to inhibit rights violations.

(g)This presentation’s three learning objectives are as follows: encourage community-based, family informed responses that optimize healing for youth in crisis;  Inform of human rights abuses in unlicensed programs; Inform of necessity of governmental and professional oversight in all programs.