No Child Deserves Abuse

in the name of treatment.

• Everyone deserves to know the truth about what goes on behind these gates. BUYER BEWARE. Please use our Red Flags List to help identify a WWASP program. The Troubled Teen Industry uses deceptive marketing techniques. Don’t be fooled by the slick marketing. Do your research.
• Restraints and solitary confinement. Experimental “attack” therapy. Cruel and unusual punishments. The unsafe and unethical procedures used by the TTI must be prohibited. Learn more about our Legislative Policies.

• American youth deserve all the same human rights as any other citizen. Parental rights DO NOT trump the child’s right to consent, safety, and decency in treatment. Signing a child’s rights away to any business is a predentary contract and should be outlawed. 

• Programs shouldn’t refuse reasonable access to unmonitored phone calls. Children should not be prevented from being able to alert the authorities and child protective services if they witness or experience abuse.
• Mandate minimum standards for education, training and licensing requirements of all staff. When staff members are not properly trained to de-escalate with safe and ethical practices, things go wrong. Children die. Many more live with lifelong trauma.
• If the program director and therapists or “case managers” do not have adequate degrees, certifications, and experience to be mental health practitioners, you should avoid placing your child into their care.

Help shouldn’t have to hurt. “Tough Love” isn’t love at all, it’s abuse. We advocate for families to seek the least restrictive community-based treatment option possible. Programs must be licensed and regulated.  Polices and procedures must be transparent, ethical, evidence-based, and trauma-informed. Avoid at all costs, coercive and oppressive behavior modification programs.