eva carlston academy abuse
I went to this residential treatment center for adolescent girls called Eva Carlston and if you dont want to read the rest of this post just DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT GOING THERE! The girls are away from their families and in a very vulnerable time of their lives.The school tries to give them discipline, but ultimately it is a cold, cruel system of punishment that I believe severely damages the children psychologically. Ive seen a lot of girls come in and out, never got better, only worse. I have certain trauma things and there was a staff that would run behind people, pretend to hit people and tell people to shut up. There were interventions people were put on for eating. Press J to jump to the feed. We were required to calculate every serving of food we ate and were very restricted with regards to how much we could have and when. Staff promised that they would get me a smoothie after my surgery. she didnt mean to lose her dad. also I would never ever be the person I am right now if I didnt persevere through all of that bullshit. There were very few things that I look back and think were therapeutic at all, frankly. We got phone calls with our parents for 15 minutes and if we went over they would grab the phone from our hands wether or not we said goodbye. eva carlston restricted food for girls that had problems with restricting so since the program was restricting for them, they didnt have to. Oh and i flipped them off when the staff told me I was out of instructional control and somehow that translated to my education consultant to my parents as me screaming fuck you! hahahaa this place was a fucking joke. Mine is not the only complaint that they have received about ECA. If a girl is underweight, they dont allow her to eat more food, they force her to drink ensures while shes crying. We received very little to no support regarding college readiness or planning. okay so all in all. so you got 250 points for doing your room chore, house chore, and workout. Rae alleges that she had her shoes and her right to use the bathroom and shower in private taken away, and says she was isolated from the other students. It was shameful and miserable. The girls are punished for complaining and rewarded for reporting other students' infractions. I have watched girls breakdown from staff being mean and staff telling them they keep doing this wrong and that they didnt do this right and why cant you do that better and go do that now or else. In this family-style setting we were told the girls learn a strength-based approach to skill building, problem solving and emotional regulation, social-skills development, and preparation for independent living. Says Eva Carlston's therapist, Ashlee Jacobs. Given the allegedly dire conditions at these treatment facilities, it was not uncommon for residents to try to escape through various means. If anyone has any questions please dont hesitate to ask! Our psychosocial and therapeutic groups are designed specifically for the needs of adolescent girls, and cover the following topics: Traditionally, adolescent females have been placed in addiction programs designed for delinquent boys. All members will develop their own relapse-prevention strategy. I just want to get this out there because I dont really hear anything bad about ECA on the internet and people need to know the truth before losing months and years of their lives to this traumatizing facility called treatment. Over a year ago, I willingly came into this program depressed, anxious, and suffering from an eating disorder and dissociative identity disorder (the latter was, at the time, undiagnosed) no behavioral problems. 144 following. Then I asked to speak to the authorities and they told me I would have to find a phone which there were none and they told me I couldnt leave sooo wtf again. The dietary restrictions they place on these girls is not healthy. and i was sent there for depression and anxiety. The girls are away from their families and in a very vulnerable time of their lives.The school tries to give them discipline, but ultimately it is a cold, cruel system of punishment that I believe severely damages the children psychologically. If a student loses too much weight, she is fed Ensure rather than being allowed to eat more food. Another girl who graduated with our daughter dropped from a size 6/8 to 00 pants during her time in the program. But thats the bottom line.. They kept me there for 18 months and all it did was give me new trauma. I have gotten in trouble for having a panic attack when I should have been doing chores. Girls were forced to starve themselves because everyone had to take measuring cup servings. They put so much shit on our shoulders that we cant take. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to experience., Another technique Rayburn recalls being used during group therapy sessions at Eva Carlston Academy was called sculpting. A person would get up and they would take several people in the audience to act out certain things in their life, Rayburn says. We ate like fucking rabbits because if you overdid your portion sizes you would get a big fat CONSEQUENCE. Oh yippee now I get to talk about how consequences on your point card were worth 4 good actions!! They made me sleep with socks on my hands and refused to take me to a dermatologist. This impression was reinforced during our tour. For this treatment, the parents submitted a claim to . ", My ridiculous plan was to jump off the balcony and injure myself so I could go to the hospital and get out of there. From a review of its website and literature, this program looks promising. So if you didnt make your privileges you ate at 5pm and didnt get to eat until breakfast at 7:45 the next day! What the fuck? , if you didnt make enough points in one day (generally either 10,000 or 5,000 depending on level in the program), you had to sit in a silent room working on essays such as the importance of managing anxiety and the importance of accepting no or making what were essential pro and cons lists on dealing with inane situations. I have no words to express the extent of anger that all of us here will feel about that, but be assured it is the very same as your own anger. throwing desks, screaming, throwing a vacuum at someone, throwing pots and pans and telling people to shut up when that is not her place. The other girls had to do that as well., Refinery29 emailed a spokesperson for Eva Carlston to ask if theyd like to respond to either of Rayburns claims; they said they were unable to do so, citing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and saying that this and analogous principles of confidentiality prevent Eva Carlston from divulging protected health information regarding its patients. also I would never ever be the person I am right now if I didnt persevere through all of that bullshit. sorry got a little off track again. Kristi Ragsdale would swear at me, single me out, and downright bullied me. they were ridiculous with their cleaning standards white glove test, cleaning the whole house with bleach every day, even multiple times a day, plus a deep clean once a week. Though many of the schools in this story are still operating and still accepting hundreds of teens into their programs each year scrutiny of them has increased dramatically, as has attendant legislation. With regards to the schooling, there were more negative points given for bad grades than positive points when good grades were achieved. Another girl who graduated with our daughter dropped from a size 6/8 to 00 pants during her time in the program. Indicators of Abuse; Safe TTI Facilities; Advocacy Organizations; FOR PROFESSIONALS. Each year, its estimated that 50,000 kids are forced into residential treatment programs against their will, either placed there through foster care, the Department of Education, mental health services, or by their own parents, according to Breaking Code Silence, an initiative organized by survivors and activists to raise awareness of the Troubled Teen Industry. The staffs job is to keep us safe, and emotional safety is just as important as physical safety, especially in a mental health program. I was constantly scared of getting in trouble for every thing I did. Because it is unbelievable it's unbelievable that this is going on in this day and age., Hopefully, it wont be going on for much longer. Each resident is required to earn at least 10,000 points per day, which are awarded for good behavior. Although our program was founded to serve female identified clients, our small and nurturing setting has also been effective with non-binary and questioning students. We are a community based program that focuses on the fine arts as a tool to help girls realize their potential. They are sometimes prohibited from speaking to anyone or from using the bathroom at times. Of course this place is going to do anything they can to get your money. All correspondence and conversations with family are monitored heavily and any complaining to parents leads to a heavy negative consequence. They tried to tell me that my parents were going to disown me if I tried to sign myself out and that I would have to live in a homeless shelter where I would probably get raped(no shit though SLC had a nasty homeless population) and that I had been lied to all along about turning 18 and being able to sign myself out. what a joke. it was never an appropriate time to express any emotion that wasnt submissive obedience., Residents are given 20 minutes to wake up, make their bed, have all 4 roommates get dressed, get cleaning supplies to Windex mirror, Clorox toilet, sweep/mop floor, Clorox spray sinks, take out trash, have someone check it off to make sure it is acceptable, Residents are given 10 minutes to eat breakfast. , before leaving to work at Eva Carlston. All residents are fed a highly low-fat diet with strict portion control. We were stuck in the house every single day expect for maybe a couple hours on saturday and like an hour on friday. You needed to make 10000 points by 5 pm every day.do the math. Eva Carlston Academy is a drug rehab facility in Salt Lake City, Utah. Overall this place is fucking sneaky and staff dont know what the hell they are doing. There arent very many good ones out there if any. Points are deducted for the smallest, most minor transgressions like leaving a pair of shoes out or having a corner of your bed spread poking out. Classic TTI I'm afraid. Ive worked with ed consultants in the past and can agree with these comments. They strictly measure every serving of food and also force the girls to eat everything on their plates at each meal or they will receive negative consequences. the most disciplining, most strict, and unhumane piece of cardstock I have ever seen. Towards the end, close to when my parents finally had it and scooped me all the way from Texas, things got really fucking weird. Its impossible not to wonder: How can these schools get away with this? She was just 17 when she attended Provo Canyon School, a psychiatric youth residential treatment center in Utah. im sure the more classically rebellious teens had it far worse they were the ones who got restrained, and that was horrible enough to witness. i had the program director herself privately shame me into silence when i said my emotional safety was being compromised by staff. , This review is based on our daughters 12 month stay at Eva Carlston Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah. In a way t was emotionally damaging. These are just a select few experiences from a handful of schools, but there are undoubtedly countless more within the industry. SODAs stand for situation, options, disadvantages, advantages. Each of our homes are found within the neighborhoods of Salt Lake City, Utah giving a 'at home' feel to the environment. They are in constant states of fear and are threatened often. Adolescence is a complicated and delicate process of identity development and self-acceptance. She was often lightheaded from hunger and unable to focus in class. But even as Hilton cemented her status as a pop culture icon, the trauma she endured while at the program was still affecting her. View their 2023 rankings, tuition cost, acceptance rates, reviews and more. I finally told them everything and they were outraged. They finally took me to a doctor and the dermatologist prescribed lotion that wouldve helped. The people in the room were laughing. They are in constant states of fear and are threatened often. All of the contact that girls have with the outside world, including with their families, are monitored by staff and therapists, so the girls do not have the opportunity to be honest with parents about what is really happening to them at ECA until after theyve been discharged. The rewards system is punitive and akin to something in a 1st grade classroom. During group therapy, girls learn leadership skills, acquire a sense of personal worth, and learn to sustain reliable and predictable relationships with other people. I have seen girls ask staff for emotional support and be rejected, being told that there were more important things for the student to do. If a student loses too much weight, she is fed Ensure rather than being allowed to eat more food. Whatever therapeutic benefit there was, was trumped by the emotional abuse and cruel treatment as mentioned above. It was the second program I was sent to after enduring the hell that is Eva Carlston Academy in Utah. so you could earn positive points by following instructions. Our team of professionals uses current best practices in our approach to addressing topics around gender and sexuality. We were required to calculate every serving of food we ate and were very restricted with regards to how much we could have and when. [edit] honestly, i downplayed the stuff about lgtbq+ clients. When I would sleep, I would scratch my skin to the point where it was bleeding and I had scars on my back. We received very little to no support regarding college readiness or planning. I have seen girls ask staff for emotional support and be rejected, being told that there were more important things for the student to do. Kay says she was taken to the school in the night through an escort system, similar to the one Hilton experienced. She heard what happened through a counselors walkie-talkie. . The staff seemed more like prison guards. Not all of us have had parents like you. Girls can be isolated from all their peers and sentenced to rooms alone with staff. This program provides direct instruction, well research and evidence-based curriculum, on-call support, and the parent coach will even travel with students to provide support in their home environment. EMDR has been recommended to treat PTSD by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA). The staff are inconsistent yet girls are punished if they dont adhere to all the staffs expectations. The above description is completely accurate. I knew if I went to the hospital, I would be able to talk to people.. so Im going to start from my first day at eva. Do NOT send her here. We believe there is no place for abuse of any kind in any setting, and no such behavior is tolerated at our center.