By Provo truth, the Provo Canyon reveals how the admitted students are treated. Apart from the treatment, the academic portion of the school is also given importance. A fair share of after school activities are part of Provo Canyon School's recreation program. The hiking based program is the one called Therapy Without Walls (TWW), which includes a dozen trips to Southern, and Northern Utah during the summer and winter months. The sporting activities include hiking the canyons and plains, biking- that has become a favorite tourism activity, and snow trails. Utah is often publicized as having the best place to watch a snowfall. Just like individual attention is given to treatment, the approach towards academics is similar. The classrooms have been designed to be smaller keeping this requirement in mind. There are separate libraries also provided for the boys and girls campuses at Provo and Orem respectively. More on Provo Truth in the website. Read on..

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The Truth About Abuse, Neglect, And Exploitation

The purpose of this article is to help the reader understand the underlying philosophy and standards that regulate Provo Canyon School and the performance of its professional staff, and to help readers judge the quality of care provided by this School. The internet makes huge amounts of information and opinions accessible to consumers. Not all information put on websites is true, and not all opinions are facts. Those who are considering Provo Canyon School as a treatment option and may be skeptical because of negative information found on the internet should considered the following points: (1) length and reputation of a facility's service to the public, (2) level of supervision and accountability to a regulatory body, (3) its mission statement and core values, (4) philosophy of care, (5) level of training of its staff, and (6) internal policies and procedures that govern patient-staff interactions.

Length and Reputation of Service
Provo Canyon School has provided care for adolescent boys and girls for almost 40 years. It has a national reputation for successfully treating the nation's toughest and most challenging teenagers. A free-market school such as Provo Canyon School lives or dies by the quality of service it provides to its customers. In today's competitive world of supply and demand, treatment centers cannot survive by providing unprofessional service to or abusing or exploiting its clientele. Over the years, Provo Canyon School has grown from a relatively small boy's behavioral modification program to 3 campuses, three major programs, and over 400 beds. Its growth is directly attributable to the reputation it has garnered for making a positive difference in the lives of thousands of youth. Provo Canyon School has a nationally recognized academic program that helps youth with learning disabilities as well as emotional and conduct disorders. Its therapy and recreation therapy programs are highly touted, and many leaders in the industry had their first tutorials in mental health care as staff at Provo Canyon School. Therapists and other staff willingly participate in parent support groups in many places in the United States, traveling voluntarily on weekends to population areas to meet with parents and family members of students enrolled at the School.

Accountable for Quality of Service
Provo Canyon School is not an entity unto itself, nor is it free to do whatever it likes in providing care. In addition to its own rigid demand for excellence, it is regulated by layers of government and civil organizations, as well as stipulations of its customers that include insurance and state Medicaid programs.

The School must comply with federal and state codes that regulate in detail its physical facilities, services, conduct, and staffing levels, or lose its license. Living spaces must meet safety and space codes. Services must be provided by competent staff who meet specific training levels. Patient safety rules are rigidly enforced, and staff-to-patient ratios are detailed for day and night services.

Complaints must be answered directly to state government regulatory bodies. Provo Canyon School is held accountable to demanding stipulations and standards of excellence established by insurance agencies and regulatory bodies, such as Joint Commission, to which it must demonstrate consistence compliance. If found out of compliance with these stipulations, Provo Canyon School would loose its license

Provo Canyon School is certified under the Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO), a nationally recognized organization providing certification and oversight for facilities providing mental health care for adults and children. Requirements are demanding, and on-site inspections ensure that the School is living up to its stipulations.

Provo Canyon School is managed by and held accountable to its parent organization, United Health Services (UHS), the largest health care provider in the nation. Virtually every service function of P.C.S. is supervised by a counterpart within UHS. The School is required to establish performance goals and have an aggressive program of self-improvement. United Health Services is fully committed to excellence in customer service second to none.

Core Beliefs and Values
Provo Canyon School's core beliefs and values, and its standards of excellence are accessible to anyone. The school's mission is to provide compassionate care to adolescents enrolled in its program, using a variety of integrated interventions that result in measurable and sustainable growth in the child's physical, intellectual, emotional, and behavioral state. School policies clearly state that very patient admitted to Provo Canyon School is of significant worth, and deserves to receive the most professional and sensitive care possible from all employees. Excellence in care begins with a set of shared beliefs and values that govern the team of care givers in the performance of their duties. All members of the clinical services team are required to learn, internalize, and model the core beliefs and values outlined in school policy.

Provo Canyon School helps its youthful clients make sustainable improvements in both behavior and deeper beliefs and attitudes that contribute to their presenting problems, by the application of these same positive beliefs and values. Each client, as a member of a team, is helped to learn and apply these beliefs and values. Core beliefs include:

•  Each Person Has Great Worth
•  We Cannot Do It Alone
•  Problems are Opportunities
•  We are Accountable
•  Environment of Care
•  Youth are Resources
•  Service Builds Character

Seven core values are taught and modeled to staff, parents, and teens. Staff measures their performance (staff and youth) by these values.

•  Openness
•  Trust
•  Care and Concern
•  Giving Service
•  Responsibility
•  Gratitude
•  Leadership

The standards of excellence provide observable, measurable, and achievable goals that are outgrowths of the core beliefs and values. Students are helped to identify strengths and weaknesses within these standards of excellence and to identify and make measurable progress toward these problem areas. There are 12 standards of excellence:

THE SCHOOL'S PHILOSOPHY OF CARE
Provo Canyon School has a clear and well-articulated philosophy of care. The interested person can find access to this in the team handbook and in the Schools policies and procedures. Quality of service arises directly from the School's philosophy of care, and is based upon core beliefs and values. The treatment team creates a positive change environment of openness and care and concern based upon core beliefs and values, and empowers clients to manage and resolve presenting problems for which they come into treatment. Specific powers of sustainable change are described briefly below.

In order to promote this empowerment of sustainable change, clients are organized into small, integral teams of staff and clients, and are taught and held accountable for personal growth and living team values. The standards of excellence identified above provide observable, achievable, and unified means of measuring a patient's progress in the program.

Philosopohy Of Change : Change is only meaningful if it sustains itself beyond treatment. Sustainable change comes through the acquisition of specific powers. Each power has certain tasks and skills inherent to its acquisition. These tasks and skills provide each student with specific actions and areas upon which to work and to be measured for success.

The Power to Recognize the Problem . The client is able to break denial and realize and accept presenting problems. Required skills are:

Honesty : Honesty is a number one value in team culture.

Acceptance : The client accepts responsibility for his or her treatment, and willingly accepts help from others.

Knowledge : Understanding is the foundation of change, and eliminates needless feelings of shame, guilt, and hopelessness.

The Power to Commit to Positive Change . The client makes a cognitive and emotional decision to work their program and gain positive control over their problems. Skills required are:

Self-Concept and Self-esteem
Hope
Trust

The Power to Manage Problems . The client learns and applies problem management skills taught by coaches, therapists, and teammates. These skills are the standards of excellence, and are amplified slightly below:

Show a positive self-concept
Show care and concern for self
Show care and concern for others
Manage anger and other strong emotions
Knowledge and Education
Learn to accept and work with authority
Exercise positive influence on others
Show self-Determination
Be truthful in Word
Be Honest in Deed
Not abusing drugs and alcohol
Be Accountable for Actions

Step Four: The Power to Sustain Positive Growth . The client will sustain positive management of problems through the application of learned skills.

1. Consistent positive response to team prompts
2. Consistent positive self-management of problems
3. Completing a school transition experience

LEVEL OF TRAINING OF STAFF
Space does not allow a full presentation of Provo Canyon School's training program, but any interested person can easily obtain a good description of the training that staff are required to go through in order to work at Provo Canyon School. Every new employee goes through an extensive orientation and background check before working with children. Each must successfully complete a period of monitored training before being allowed to go one-on-one with a youth. Each staff is required to complete periodic and annual training in all major aspects of the School's policies, procedures, and standards of care, as well as professional training in their area of expertise (therapists, nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, substance abuse counselors, etc.) Federal, state, and Joint Commission training requirements are exhaustive, and include physical, emotional, mental, and psychological areas of training. The school maintains an extensive training and procedural handbook with standardized forms and procedures for all types of care given to or interaction with clients, thus providing a consistent cohesiveness to care. Additionally, each direct care staff is trained in non-violent crisis intervention (NCI), an internationally recognized method of managing behavior in a crisis situation. It is safe to say that no staff of any residential treatment facility in the United States of America is better trained to work with youth than at Provo Canyon School.

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES GOVERNING CARE
Provo Canyon School is bound by its policies and procedures. The School maintains a quality assurance administrator that maintains all policies and procedures, acts as the School's counsel on these matters, and administers an active program of training and performance improvement among the staff. Each department director is required to establish within their department performance indicators and compliance thresholds that must be within acceptable standards of safety. Provo Canyon School's director of human resources is another active advocate for staff training and behavior management. The School requires managers to read and train their staff using policies and procedures governing the program. Each manager must certify that training has been completed on these policies and procedures. Joint Commission and federal and state governing organizations review these policies and evaluate the School's adherence to them. This is serious business, and failure to do so can result in loss of licensure and certification.

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Maximizing the Outcome of Residential Treatment at Provo Canyon School

Enrolling a child at Provo Canyon School often evokes strong emotions in parents that range from relief and hope to guilt and sorrow. While these are normal feelings for parents, how you act upon these emotions can significantly influence how much benefit you and your child get from treatment. At Provo Canyon School we believe it works much to the benefit of the child, the parents, and the care-givers when parents learn and practice these methods of maximizing true growth in treatment.

Accept the Need for Care
You will get out of residential treatment what you put into it. Your child may be resistive to treatment at Provo Canyon School, but you, as a parent, need to be focused, resolute, and positive. If you will get on-board and support the Provo Canyon School program and the professional staff working with your child, your teen will adjust more quickly and positive growth will occur more readily. This may take swallowing pride and breaking denial on your part, but it is healthy and necessary.

Take Responsibility Instead of Finding Fault
Effective care does not place blame; it requires responsibility. At Provo Canyon School we believe that blaming condemns others for mistakes, where responsibility holds one accountable for solving problems. Blaming ourselves and others is a wasteful practice. Truth is, there is plenty of blame to go around. While understanding the cause of problems is helpful in finding solutions and preventing future reoccurrences, blaming prevents progress and wastes time and money. Successful parents do not blame themselves, their child, or circumstance. Rather, they take responsibility to solve problems.

Support Instead of Rescue
Successful parents support their children, but hold them accountable to resolve their own problems, instead of rescuing them. Especially if your child suffers from a physical, emotional, or psychological disability, you may be tempted to protect him/her by making excuses for them, trying to modify the program to meet what you think are their needs, or treating them as if they are incompetent to help themselves. Provo Canyon School believes that parents who fall into this trap, buy into every complaint and excuse made by the child. They spend their time interfering with and trying to control the treatment staff at Provo Canyon School, manipulating, and refereeing every situation that comes up. This modeling behavior empowers your child to resist working the Provo Canyon School program and taking responsibility for progress. It keeps him/her weak.

Learn Your Role as a Team Player
Successful parents learn and play their role in Provo Canyon School treatment early on and become a team player from the beginning. Your role is not to control. Your role is to step back into a support role to your child. Your role is to provide the direct care staff of Provo Canyon School with information and insight to your child. Your role is to provide positive support and unconditional love to your child. You become a cheerleader and a fan, so to speak, instead of a bedraggled player that has been drug up and down the court of life by your child. You work with the Provo Canyon School staff to identify and resolve problems, rather than create more by trying to direct and control. You work on your own issues and prepare yourself and your family for your child's return. The sooner you learn to play your role, the more powerful your influence will be.

Build Positive Relationships
Four important relationships determine the success of treatment at Provo Canyon School. Successful parents recognize and foster these relationships. They are: (1) your child's relationship with himself and his/her recovery, (2) your teen's relationship with you, (3) your relationship with the Provo Canyon School treatment staff, and (4) your teen's relationship with Provo Canyon School treatment staff.

Teen's Relationship With Self : The child's success in making needed changes during their time at Provo Canyon School depends upon the self-esteem and confidence they build within themselves. This is done, to a large degree, independent of parents, family, and others. A teen's self-mastery is all important. Successful parents recognize this and help their child create their own psychological autonomy (the ability to think and act responsibly for themselves).

Parent – Child Relationship : Successful parents play a support role, not a control role. They recognize that for a healthy relationship to develop between them and their child, they must work on their own issues, even as their child works on his/her problems. If you find yourself trying to control treatment, not following the professional guidance of Provo Canyon School treatment staff, and disregarding Provo Canyon School treatment protocols, then, you are too enmeshed with your child, and you are actually harming treatment.

Parent – Staff Relationships : Successful parents recognize that the relationship they establish with the Provo Canyon School treatment staff will ultimately affect the quality of relationship they have with their child. Form a strong, supportive bond at the beginning of treatment with your child's professional care-giving team, so that your child will have a constant frame of reference.

Teen – Staff Relationship : Successful parents do not resent positive relationships that form between their child and Provo Canyon School staff, and they do everything possible to promote and encourage this relationship. They develop from the beginning a trusting relationship with their staff.

Stay the Course
Positive growth is a process, not an event. Successful parents realize this and stay the course until sufficient growth has been realized. Resistive teens typically go through a limit-testing stage and a manipulation stage before they get serious about working their Provo Canyon School program. The testing stage is frequently characterized with angry outbursts, holding their love and future relationships with their parents hostage if they are not released. The manipulation stage includes heart-wrenching pleading, plea-bargaining, making promises that often they cannot or intend to keep, and trying to frighten parents with fantastic accusations of staff brutality, abuse, and neglect. They know their parent's buttons and will readily push them if they feel it will be to their advantage. They do this because they do not want to be held accountable or face their issues. Successful parents do not pull their child out of treatment too early or at the first sign of progress. They realize that outer behavior is the beginning of change, not the end. They allow the changes to be internalized through sustained practice. They wait to see that their teen can sustain self-management of problems before they agree to end Provo Canyon School treatment.

Empower True Change
True change comes not by force or coercion, but by your teen acquiring and applying five important powers in their life. These powers are briefly explained below.

Empower Responsibility : One of the first signs parents should look for in their child's growth is an awareness and honest admission of responsibility. You should promote openness and trust in your child so that they can feel empowered to take responsibility for their program at Provo Canyon School. Remember that blaming, fault-finding, and rescuing diminish your child's ability to be honest and take responsibility for accepting help from others. You can empower your child by modeling honesty and kindness and understanding.

Empower Resolution : Successful parents empower courage to make commitments and resolutions. Most children fail to make resolutions because they lack hope, vision, and trust in themselves and others. Successful parents model their willingness to recognize and admit their own weaknesses and mistakes, and they expect their child to do the same. Express love and hope and confidence in your child during treatment at Provo Canyon School.

Empower Action : True change takes courage and persistence. You should genuinely praise your child for the little improvements that they make. Watch for changes in negative attitudes, beliefs, and thinking; for greater control of impulsivity and self-defeating behaviors; for more positive relationships with peers, staff, and your family. You will know that real change is occurring when your child is able to consistently manage their own problems in the Provo Canyon School treatment environment, and you will know that they are getting close to discharge when they can sustain self-mastery. Do not expect perfection or adult behavior. Remember that your teen is an adolescent, and even the best do not always act rationally.

Empower Healing : Your child needs to heal from the pain and guilt of the past. So do you. Healing comes through talking through issues, listening in a non-judgmental way, and expressing forgiveness and love. Your child and you need to ask for forgiveness of those you have offended and need to forgive each other for offenses committed. Your child will not heal fully if they do not go through the stages of healing, and if they do not make realistic amends for what they have done. Simply saying, “I'm sorry” often is not enough, nor is sweeping past pain under the emotional rug.

Empower Endurance : Successful parents work closely with their staff and child in preparing a transition plan back home from Provo Canyon School. They commit themselves, along with their child, to recovery, and they make a joint plan of action to sustain new skills and growth. They help their child to have a realistic and meaningful lifestyle for future living. They insist on positive boundaries and limits and the respect of parental authority. They help assemble a positive support team for their child. They also make any changes in their family behavior that would be harmful to their child's full recovery when they return from Provo Canyon School.

Provo Canyon School and National Association Members Expand Focus to Public Policy and Advocacy for Children and Families.

www.provocanyon.com [Provo Canyon School] and other children’s advocacy groups have joined NATSAP to preserve and protect programs for children and families in need of specialized educational and treatment services. Provo, UT (PRWEB) March 1, 2007 -- Dr. Jeremy Cottle, CEO of Provo Canyon School , is pleased to announce, "As a member of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP), Provo Canyon School joins them in their intent to preserve and protect programs for children and families in need of specialized educational and treatment services." We need reform to eliminate programs that prey on desperate families while preserving vital components in the continuum of care.

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Provo Canyon School: adapting to cultural diversity

Being knowledgeable about cultural differences is essential as the world population becomes more and more diverse.

• Therapists thus require training to respond correctly. Misunderstandings may be caused due to cultural gaps. This needs to be avoided. Cultural sensitivity comes to play too.
• Provo Canyon School therapists and supervisors are constantly on their toes. This is because the students are more culturally and ethically diverse.

• Awareness about ethnic diversity can be improved by studying how behavior, social structure, beliefs are shaped.


• The main aim of the training is to improve the Provo Canyon staff confidence.
• The next stage aims to change the therapists view. The therapist should move from the clinical atmosphere to the cultural side of their job.
• Bringing out the therapist's own view of racism, stereotypes and biases.
• Talking about the biases and resolving them is essential.
• The most common reaction to change is opposition. The therapist and the trainer must arrive at a conclusion about the views of the former.
• Certain actions on part of Provo Canyon students may lead to an action by the therapist. These actions must be discussed.
• Disciplinary measures can cause students from varied backgrounds to react differently.
• A group outlook is suggested on how to tackle students. Care should be taken that the therapists view is also heard.
• One is not expected to be an expert of any particular culture. The idea is to identify common reoccurring patterns.
• At the same time, the Provo Canyon therapists should be aware in groups and individuals.
• The therapists may have to identify these changes as interesting for them, rather than uncomfortably different.

A therapist for younger children since July 2006 at Provo Canyon, Amanda Beal has a vast experience in individual and group therapy.

About ADD /ADHD and Provo Canyon School
ADD / ADHD is been more commonly diagnosed in adults and children more commonly than ever before. The estimates are that between 1.5 million to 2 million people the world over are suffering from this condition. The condition is diagnosed mostly after 6 months or more months of recurring symptoms. Incessant talking, careless errors in schoolwork, excessively restlessness while seated, difficulties in organizing things are some of the symptoms of ADD/ADHD. If more than six of the nine symptoms of inattention are present in a person then it is the inattentive type. In case of hyperactivity, the same conditions apply.

Provo Canyon School has been treating adolescents for ADD / ADHD and other conditions including drug and alcohol abuse.

Back to Amanda
Amanda has a Behavioral Science Bachelor's degree from the Utah Valley State College. She has a Master's degree from Washington in counseling. Amanda has a deep interest in people. This interest was fuelled during her master's degree–she happened to meet people from varied backgrounds. Presently, Amanda is pursuing her PhD at the Brigham Young University located at Provo, Utah. Apart from the PhD, she is also a therapist at Somerset for the Early Adolescent Campus. Amanda practices the attachment theory with the boys at the campus. She uses her own method of teaching.

Her main targets and methods while working with children are:

•  Building a good relation with the children.
•  Having a cooperative and helpful relation with the parents and guardians of the children.
•  A soft approach during interaction.
•  She tries combining treatment and therapy with play.
•  Puppets and role-play are her methods of maintaining interest.
•  She uses sand play theory, which she plans to expand to greater detail.
•  The sand play theory has being successfully implemented by Amanda. Children have been able to recover from trauma, by the application of Amanda's method.