Help troubled teens develop skills to deal with their own problems

Some of the most popular solutions for “troubled teens” are boot camps or school discipline. However, in recent years there have been several criticisms of this solution. In addition, new data shows that there are effective treatment programs that avoid the pitfalls of boot camps and the twin revolving doors of school discipline or the justice system.

One leading critic of boot camps says they’re becoming outdated because they handle struggling teens “in ways that don’t address their real struggles.” Ross Greene is a psychologist and author of the recently published Lost at school: why our children with behavior problems are falling behind and how we can help them. Ross points out that many schools still focus on disciplining teens when what they need to do is identify and deal with lagging skills that get teens into trouble.

Greene argues, “Well-behaved students don’t behave because of the school discipline program. They behave because they have the skills to handle life’s challenges in an adaptable way.” According to Ross, “We’re losing a lot of kids and a lot of teachers because we still see defiant kids in the wrong way. It’s an exercise in frustration for everyone involved.”

“In other words, these children have a developmental delay, a kind of learning disability… in the same way that children with reading delays have difficulty mastering the skills necessary to master reading, children Challengers have difficulty mastering the skills required to become competent in managing life’s social, emotional, and behavioral challenges.

In discussing the popular option of “boot camps for troubled teens,” Dr. Edward Latessa essentially echoes Greene in denouncing a root problem with troubled teens: their focus on discipline over treatment and rehabilitation.

Latessa writes, “What are they teaching you in boot camp? Drills, ceremony, discipline, how to say yes sir, no sir. Well, the problem is, that’s not related to criminal behavior.” Latessa responds that good programs focus on behaviors, attitudes, and coping skills that help students face and deal with real-world problems. Today’s successful treatment programs focus on practical skills as simple and straightforward as how to avoid risky situations and negative friends and remain assertive with peers with the intent to divert them.

“If teens practice these skills, then they have the ability to deal with situations when they find themselves in them. Good programs teach those things, and they do it in a way that is modeled, practiced, and reinforced.”

In fact, a recent study backs up their claims. Treatment programs that focus on behavior and attitudes and are properly licensed have documented success. The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSP) surveyed 1,027 adolescents within a year of discharge from one of its member programs. The analysis showed that “adolescents’ problems improve significantly during private residential treatment and that, with only a few exceptions, discharge functioning and change during treatment are relatively similar, regardless of background, history, problems and adolescent treatment factors”.

To be a member of NATSP, treatment programs must be “licensed by the appropriate state agency authorized to establish and oversee standards of therapeutic and/or behavioral health care for youth and adolescents” or the program must be “accredited by a health agency nationally recognized behavioral health accrediting agency”. In addition, their therapeutic services must have the “supervision of a qualified physician”.

Changing behaviors and attitudes is the key to helping adolescents deal with their own problems, much more effective than discipline imposed by any external agent. Today’s effective programs focus on attitude change and practical skills for teens to stay out of trouble. As Gordon Hay of Venture Academy, a school and summer camp for troubled teens in Ontario, puts it, “boot camps are on their way to extinction.”