Eckerd Youth Alternatives
By Holly Hunter | July 27, 2010
I sat down yesterday with Eckerd Youth Alternatives Quality Control Officer, Greg Holeman to find out more about Eckerd schools and programs and their plans for the future.
100,000 Stories and Counting is printed on the front of their marketing packet; so I asked Greg is this really true? Greg told me that since the opening of their first outdoor therapeutic program (OTP) in 1968 and since they opened the first Southeast OTP for girls in 1969 Eckerd has built a continuum of care which includes 40 programs both public and private that work with at-risk teens and their families. Intervention and prevention services, home-based and community-based interventions, out-of-home placement, after-care and reintegration services in nine States comprise the essence of Eckerd. Through these avenues Eckerd helps their students learn how to redirect their behavior and take responsibility for their choices. Each one of the Eckerd programs take a positive approach to helping their students because, “…each child deserves to live a successful and rewarding life,” Greg said.
Through their Child Welfare and Behavioral Health programs Eckerd is able to reach out to kids in most every sector of life. Serving students ages 5-23 Eckerd works to provide support, guidance and wrap-around services to help preserve the family unit. In addition Eckerd has programs to meet the needs of students seeking independent living, family reunification and transitional group housing.
Greg told me that Eckerd is planning to open more private academies in the not too distant future. In this economy, is that a good thing to do? Greg said that Eckerd is reaching out internationally to families across the globe and with this evolution comes the need to expand their services to the private sector beyond Eckerd Academy in Suches, GA and Eckerd Academy in Brooksville, FL. Greg said Eckerd is also broadening the faith-based component of their services. In fact the book mark which is included with the material Greg handed me reads: EYA Making a Difference Every Day “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, As long as ever you can.” John Wesley.
Eckerd does conduct tours of their private academies and asks that if you are interested you call and make an appointment. Eckerd has counselors ready to assist families in the private and public sector; academy admissions 800-914-3937 or for additional services call their help line: 800-554-HELP (4357). Remember to contact SafePassage Adolescent Services ® for a good and safe transition for your son or daughter to an Eckerd facility: 800.811.7911.
Topics: Teen Transport, at-risk adolescents | No Comments »
K-9 Demonstration Canceled
By Holly Hunter | June 24, 2010
The K-9 Demonstration and Cookout scheduled for today was canceled due to the extreme heat. With the heat index well over 100 degrees and as this was to be an outdoor demonstration, event sponsors SafePassage Adolescent Services and Eckerd Academy of the Blue Ridge were concerned for the welfare of the dogs, their handlers and other attendees and have decided to postpone the event until the weather cools off.
The event will be rescheduled in the fall toward the beginning of October.
Be on the lookout for upcoming announcements about this event.
Topics: SafePassage News | No Comments »
K-9 Demonstration and Cookout
By Holly Hunter | June 17, 2010
SafePassage Adolescent Services ® is pleased to announce that we are co-sponsoring with Eckerd Academy of the Blue Ridge a K-9 Demonstration and Cookout. The event will be held on Thursday June 24, 2010 from 1:00P until 5:00P at the Eckerd campus in Suches, GA.
K-9 trainers and handlers from the City of Griffin GA Police Department will be on hand to demonstrate how they use K-9 dogs in everyday law enforcement activities. These special dogs and their handlers will be present to demonstrate various techniques such as building and area searches; narcotics and explosives detection; criminal apprehension and more. The Eckerd facility will be available for tour and SafePassage Owner, Holly Hunter will be on hand to answer questions concerning the best ways to safely transport at-risk adolescents, and some SafePassage personnel will be on site as well.
The event is open to Educational Consultants, therapeutic boarding school, wilderness program and residential treatment center staff. Contact Mindy Heath at Eckerd Academy of the Blue Ridge: 800.245.2305 or SafePassage Adolescent Services ® 770.667.7467 to RSVP and get directions.
Topics: SafePassage News | No Comments »
Reactive Attachment Disorder
By Holly Hunter | April 13, 2010
Good Morning America has been following the story of the mother who put her seven year old, adoptive son on an airplane alone sending him back to Russia. Apparently the mother had a note with him that explained that this child was violent. Part of their follow up story indicated that the child may have Reactive Attachment Disorder or RAD as it is commonly referred to in the industry.
Today Juju Chang, GMA news anchor stated that having an adoptive child who is diagnosed with RAD is rare. I am not so sure about RAD being rare as our Transport Teams see a fare amount of it among at-risk teens we accompany to therapeutic schools and programs. Over the past thirteen years of transports for me personally more than sixty percent of the students I have transported were adoptive, and of those students more than half exhibited RAD traits. Were they all diagnosed as RAD? No. Most of the time parents don’t reveal the issues their teens are facing because, in my opinion, I have come to believe these parents think we will refuse to transport if we find out what is really going on. Quite the contrary is true.
In the world of transporting adolescents a good Agency like SafePassage it is not about passing judgment on what issues your teenager is dealing with. Certainly it helps to know what the family dynamics are and if your teen has been diagnosed or has spent time at another facility or program. Why should we know these things, because the Transport Team is not walking into a situation blind. If your teen is smoking weed, sneaking into the liquor cabinet or skipping school parents would have no problem with revealing that information. But parents who have discovered that their teen is a drug dealer, is pimping or has been diagnosed with RAD seem to have a difficult time trusting us with this information.
One of the biggest reasons parents need to be forthcoming about their at-risk teen is so that we can assemble the Team that is best suited to assist your family. Its not that the other Teams can’t get the job done, but getting the job done is not our sole objective. Our primary objective is to safely deliver your student to the destination you have selected in a good mind set where your teen is prepared to begin the journey with a positive mental outlook. The only way I can know to have the Agent with a specialty in hostage negotiations work with your teen who is a master manipulator is for you to tell me your teen has been sneaking out at night and partying with the drug crowd; and the only way I can know to send the Agent who has a background in psychology and has made a career of working with difficult teens is for you to tell me your adolescent has been diagnosed with ADHD, Bipolar Disorder or RAD.
We all have issues. No one gets through life without facing a few unexpected challenges and SafePassage is here to assist families in crisis provide an opportunity for their at-risk adolescents to receive help for the issues they face, get their lives back on track and develop a skill set to see them well into the future. Call us in the SafePassage office and find out how the assistance we provide will benefit your family: 770.667.7467.
Topics: SafePassage News | No Comments »
Donate Travel-size Toiletries
By Holly Hunter | March 12, 2010
Experienced travelers know that most hotels try to make your stay more comfortable by providing travel size shampoos, soaps and other toiletry items. SafePassage Transport Teams that stay in a hotel the night before they assist families in crisis are encouraged to donate the travel size toiletries they receive at the hotel to a local shelter in their home town or drop these items by the office collection bin for donation.
One of the local charities that SafePassage up holds is New Beginnings, a support program of the Assistance League of Atlanta. New Beginnings assembles daily hygiene kits for the homeless living in shelters. AL ATL provides clothing, household and personal care items to thousands of needy individuals as they work to break the cycle of homelessness in Atlanta.
SafePassage offers the opportunity for others in the community to bring their unused travel size toiletries by the office for donation to this worthy organization.
Topics: SafePassage News | No Comments »
17 Is Not Old Enough
By Holly Hunter | November 2, 2009
Late yesterday I received a panic phone call from a therapeutic boarding school. They said that one of their students was on a family visit at a mall when the student bolted. The parents, of course, chased in pursuit of their own child and when they caught up to her they put hands on her. Attempting to restrain her and keep her safe a struggle ensued and the police got involved. The police took the student into custody, but told the parents they could not hold her and thought it best to release her under her own recognizance because she was 17 years old. The parents were left begging the officer not to do that because their daughter would go back to living on the streets as she had been in the past.
Why are we having this conversation, I thought? The statute is very clear in the State of GA. Parents are permitted to have custody of their child for the purpose of keeping them in school until their eighteenth birthday. The statute written in the GA Code of Law, Title § 39-1-1states:
Age of legal majority; residence of persons in state for purpose of attending school
(a) The age of legal majority in this state is 18 years; until that age all persons are minors.
(b) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed automatically to render an individual a resident of this state when that individual is in the state for the purpose of attending school. In the case of such individual, his residence will be considered to be the state in which his parents reside if under the laws of that state the individual would still be considered a minor and he is incapable of proving his emancipation.
The problem parents often face is that the law allows a 17 year old involved in a crime to be tried in a court of law as an adult. So, the natural reaction is to think: if they can be tried as an adult at 17, then they are at the age of making their own decisions. In other words it must be alright to allow adult privilege, or recognize them as having reached the Age of Majority at 17. This line of thinking is wrong
So what happened to the student? The parents finally convinced the officer that their daughter was a danger to herself and they transported her to a local hospital. Since the school has Power of Attorney over the student the on-call doctor released the student back to the school and she was brought back to campus where she would be able to continue her academics, receive the therapy she needs and be safe.
If you have questions regarding the Age of Majority in your state or in the state in which your child attends school call us in the SafePassage offices: 770.667.7467 or contact your personal Family Law Attorney.
Parents should not have to argue to point of custodial guardianship with any local law enforcement; it should be clear in the minds of law enforcement. We will have that discussion another day.
Topics: at-risk adolescents | No Comments »
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