Elevations RTC, also known as Seven Stars Academy and formerly known as the Island View Residential Treatment Center, is a lock-down residential treatment center for children aged 13 to 18 in Utah. The troubled-teen program has been criticized for maintaining a prison-like environment where kids are physically and psychologically abused.
Video Elevations Residential Treatment Center
Background
In 2014, Elevations opened as a licensed residential treatment facility. Elevations is an owner-operated program created in partnership with Family Help & Wellness. When the treatment center opened, Dr. David Hans was the owner and executive director; however, is no longer affiliated with Elevations. Judi Jacques, who was originally hired as the Associate Executive Director, is currently the Executive Director. Elevations is a lock-down facility and has three time-out rooms for isolating children.
Maps Elevations Residential Treatment Center
Controversy
Elevations was formerly known as the Island View Residential Treatment Center, which was sued in January and February 2014, along with its parent company Aspen Education Group, by former students and parents who alleged that the facility maintained a prison-like environment where physical and psychological torture were used against students. In May of that year, a new company, Family Help & Wellness, took over the facility and the new executive director Dr. Hans announced that the program changed its name to Elevations RTC. Island View and Elevations have been criticized for the isolation, restraint and psychological abuse of students under Elevations' control, and for treating kids with high-dose anti-psychotics, among other things. In August 2014, a state inspector admonished Elevations for its mistreatment of children: "youth don't feel like they have a voice," the inspector noted in her audit. "They don't complete the grievance [forms] because they have ... had staff laugh at it and throw it in the trash." Before Elevations came under new management, the current executive director Ms. Jacques had worked at Island View for almost 20 years. Most of the staff are the same: in 2016, 39 of the 48 employees listed on Elevations' website worked for Island View. The student dress code, applications, policies and procedures, and even the solitary confinement procedures also stayed the same.
References
External links
- Official website - Elevations RTC, owned and operated by Family Help and Wellness.
Source of the article : Wikipedia