Treatment and Ethics - Parenting Help with Trouble Teens

Not all therapists are alike. The ReFraming Parenting Program is based upon principles that work extremely well with therapists who have training and experience in family and relationship issues. We suggest you look for a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). An exceptional site through which you can search for a therapist in your area is www.therapistlocator.net.

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What Treatment Methods Are Best?

In the musical, Fiddler on the Roof, Reb Tevia was chastised for his open mindedness, "He's right, and he's right! How can they both be right?" to which he responded, "You know, you are also right!" Sometimes being "right" is more a matter of perspective and experience than of verifiable truth.

No individual or organization in the Treatment Care industry lives in a vacuum. The philosophies and theories that have developed over the years have done so by virtue of the flow of information, experience, and ideas.

Business Versus Treatment - Our Complaint

Although we do not agree with all treatment philosophies, we do not waste time arguing against their potential need in different situations. We do, however, disagree with many widespread business practices in the treatment of troubled teens and their families.

There is an inherent conflict of interest when a treatment facility evaluates the need for new, or continued placement of a teen, and balances its recommendation with its profit margins. The same conflict exists among marketers in the industry, many of whom tell parents that their services are free, then charge treatment facilities thousands of dollars for the referral and placement of their child.

Those with whom we agree. The referral sources whom we trust are called "educational consultants," not marketers. They state their fees up front, are members of the IECA, and charge clients directly for their services. If ANYBODY recommends you to a program, you should verify that they are members of the IECA. They neither seek nor accept marketing fees from treatment programs. Their services are truly professional in nature, are reliable, and their conduct is ensured by a firm code of ethics.

We recommend neither the marketers, nor the treatment programs who engage in paying or receiving marketing fees. Their basis of business is, at the most basic level, in conflict with your best interest. Our recommendation: avoid them.

Indications of Unethical Therapeutic Business Practice

* Variable Monthly Fees. If you are referred to a treatment program that charges thousands of dollars more in their first month of service, than they do for each subsequent month, it is reasonable to figure that the program may pay marketers for that difference in cost. Even if your marketer has not been paid, if this practice is employed by the program it will impact you financially, and may yet have an unethical impact on you and your child. You see, such a charge is not merely an event that may or may not be avoided ..... It is a mode of business that influences every aspect of the program's treatment practices.

If the treatment program denies that this is the use or intent of the extra funds, get that statement explicitly in writing. This is not legal advice. It is simply wise to get people to put their pen where their mouth is. (Insight Technical Academy and Beyond Boarders, for example, use an enrollment fee for specific supplies that contribute to the student's services. Upon request, the EXACT use of this fee is disclosed to the parent. It is NEVER used to entice marketers.)

Remember, a new student is, in no way, a financial drain on a treatment program. Every new student represents immediate increased profits. It is this profit cycle that has lured unethical profiteers into the industry.

* Vague or Inconsistent Graduation Process. It is difficult to know whether or not a teen is ready to leave treatment to return home. There are times, however, when profit-minded organizations delay "graduation," or "therapeutically recommended" release from treatment, merely to obtain another month (or months) of extra payment from parents. This problem is compounded if the at-risk teen is bound to successful treatment by court order, and the unethical profiteer is aware of this requirement.

Get Outside, Unbiased Help and Information

Using a Therapist. This is one of many reasons that we recommend starting your troubled teen's help at home with a therapist. If out-of-home placement becomes necessary, this therapist should be, by your demand, an active member of your child's treatment team, and should remain in continued communication with your child. This provides you with the guarantee of an unbiased therapeutic voice in your child's treatment.

Getting a Therapist or Educational Consultant. If your child does not currently have a local therapist, you may easily find one in your area at www.therapistlocator.net. Many people in need of parent help have also benefitted from the use of educational consultants, who often have extensive treatment industry experience, and who can both recommend placement, and advocate for your child and you. We recommend educational consultants who are members of the IECA, as they are bound by a strict code of ethics that represent a solid backdrop of protection for you and your at-risk teen.

Unity of Thought

"Unity of Thought" implies "agreement in purpose." Such unity begins with you and your family. When help is needed, it extends to the closest environments to you: schools, church, local therapy, extended family, etc. As need dictates, you may seek the services of organizations such as treatment programs. But before you enlist treatment programs in your processes and plans, make sure you have unity in the environments closest to you. Get a therapist for your troubled teen long before you get a treatment program. Seek the therapist's opinion before seeking program help. Get parent help as part of your process toward teen help.

Seeking Unity of Thought from your spouse, therapist, and even your troubled teen will help you make plans and decisions logically, without being overly influenced by emotions in the "heat of the moment."

Our Business Practices

We make no apology for our aggressive use of the internet, affiliate networks, link exchanges, etc. We pay our affiliates reasonable fees for "click-through" purchases, and engage in various internet marketing campaigns. This process strengthens our web positioning, is standard internet practice, and allows us to expand the messages conveyed above and throughout this site, along with the services we provide.

NOTE: We NEVER pay independent referral sources referral fees.* Our affiliate fees are the only direct marketing fees we pay, and these are made as payment for technological services, NOT quasi-therapeutic referrals. Although we are desirous that our affiliates understand our work and industry, we neither employ nor train them to be independent referral sources, portraying themselves as experts in the therapeutic treatment and education industry.

ALL of our visitors and clients are specifically redirected to appropriate therapeutic and professional assistance as part of our mission to bring parent help and family solutions into the homes of troubled teens.

Even Insight Academy and Beyond Boarders are free from marketing referrals. In addition, all clients (and parents) involved with these programs are constantly encouraged to develop a "full solution" approach to helping the troubled teen, coordinating services that begin and end in the home, in coordination with local therapists.

All of our therapeutic and consultant links are provided as a service to our site visitors. Neither SIM nor its owners receive compensation of any sort from any of these linked sites or organizations.

* The only exceptions to the Independent Referral Source commission rule are the initial openings and placement in Insight Academy and Beyond Boarders. These placements are limited to very small numbers, and do not reflect a shift in SIM policy.