Meg Appelgate
speaker
102 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Dec 2024
Meg Appelgate’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And I had inappropriate physical and emotional relationship dynamics between my therapists and myself.
Yeah. No, it is a con. And there are whole pipelines that funnel youth into this industry. Caregiver placement, juvenile justice, child welfare, medical and mental health professionals, and even school districts.
Over the years, these programs have gotten smarter with funding pipelines. And it's now estimated that $23 billion in taxpayer dollars are utilized every year to send kids away to them.
No. We're talking about your taxpayer dollars. Wow. Potentially funding abuse.
Yeah, and remember, that's only the public funds. So that estimation doesn't even include the revenue that these facilities get from parents paying privately.
It's a complex web where each decision maker can be misled or pressured into thinking these programs are the best option for their kids.
Well, to be honest, it's not far off from the truth. They rely heavily on deceptive marketing tactics. They target people who are truly just desperately looking for help. Many programs have websites with quizzes you can fill out online to find out if you have a troubled teen that will ultimately recommend their program regardless of your answers.
Exactly. I actually did that once for a program called Shepherd's Hill Academy. They have this 10-question quiz to help parents determine if they have a troubled teen. I took the quiz as a hypothetical parent, but instead of indicating my teen had issues, I put disagree to all of the behaviors they deemed were problematic. And guess what?
Even with all my answers being disagreeing, the quiz results still said, and I quote, it sounds like your teenager is experiencing moderate... to high levels of disobedience, anger, or risky behavior. They then, of course, go on to claim that Shepherd's Hill Academy was a solution to my non-existent problems.
Exactly. It's completely rigged. Using only 10 vague questions, and even when my answers were all disagree, they recommended their 12-month residential treatment program for a team they've never met. If that doesn't scream rigged, I don't know what does.
Yeah. If the mattress guaranteed a lifetime warranty of psychological trauma.
Yeah, what's really happening in these programs is far from what they advertise, I'm sure you can imagine. Instead of giving kids individualized, evidence-based treatment, many of these places are just hotbeds of abuse. You've got physical abuse, degrading punishments, and all sorts of inhumane discipline. Kids are also often subjected to dangerous seclusion and restraint practices.
This can mean being physically restrained, tied up with devices like zip ties, or even drugged to keep them in line. In my first program, if anyone was having an attitude or acting out of line,
You would see this group of staff come running in and they would throw the kid to the floor on their face and have a staff member holding each of their arms and legs down and a staff with their knee lodged in between their shoulder blades. Then another staff member would come by, pull the kid's pants down and give them some shot of a tranquilizer or another sedative to make them pass out.
Then they'd carry them off to a room to lock them up until they woke up.
Yeah, you're completely right. And as if that wasn't enough, there are disturbing reports of sexual assault and harassments of all kinds. I myself experienced extremely inappropriate relationship dynamics with my therapist while there. The male therapist used to have wrestling matches with all of the girls and even had us sit on his lap.
The kids can't report the abuse because they have severe restrictions on communication with parents, lawyers, and other advocates. If a staff member tries to report it internally, they often get punished. These programs make kids live under their total authority, stripping away their autonomy for months to years. These kids are victims of institutional abuse.
The longer they stay in these places, the more likely they are to experience this abuse. This is especially true for kids with developmental disabilities who find themselves in these programs at an alarming rate. These kids are more likely to be abused, less likely to report the abuse, more likely to experience trauma-related symptoms, and less likely to be able to heal from the harm.
And that's just scratching the surface. We also hear many reports of physical and nutritional neglect, think food and sleep deprivation and restricted access to medical care. There is also medical abuse, including forced medication and overmedication. I myself remember being put on meds that had me drooling like a St. Bernard and made me gain 60 pounds in six months.
Pretty much. They decided I had bipolar disorder after two days of being there. Turns out, I don't have it at all.
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