If you are a parent who has only had teens that were easy to deal with, then you probably don't understand why anyone would ever send their child to a boot camp. However, for those who have had to deal with extreme behavior, moods, or risks from their teens, a boot camp may be the smartest decision to keep them safe from themselves. If you are considering sending your child out for care, you should first ask three questions, and then choose the right kind of location for them to go:
How to Know if you Need More Help With Your Teen
If you are not sure if this is the right thing for you, then you need to ask three questions to yourself. First, is your child's life, health or wellbeing at risk? Second, have you tried everything that outpatient has to offer? Finally, have you found a program that you believe can do more and that you can afford?
Choosing the Right Program
There are a lot of different programs out there that have different levels of things to offer. True boot camps offer rigorous discipline to try and curb behaviors. Wilderness Therapy programs offer kids a break from the distractions and stresses of the typical world and uses trained therapists and the documented healing powers of the outdoors to help set your kids on a different path. Finally, residential treatment centers will offer sustained inpatient therapy over the course of a year or so, and help kids to re-learn how to live life in a more productive way. The things that will make it easier to choose are a pre-screening for mental health problems, a look at the behavioral issues, an understanding of drug and crime problems, and the advised (or in some cases, court-mandated) treatment by professionals who have tried to help him or her without success.
How to Afford Inpatient Treatment
One of the most difficult parts of inpatient treatments is whether you can afford to send your child there. They often run in the high five to six figures for cost, and though some changes have made it easier to afford them since the introduction of the Mental Health Parity act, it is still very difficult. Some of the things you can do is to work with your insurance company ahead of time, and to work with an educational consultant. They can help take a look at the kind of needs that your child has and fit them to the right kind of program for them. They can also look at your financial situation, and help you to negotiate scholarships, or write medical necessity testimony for your insurance company. Best of all, they know which programs are effective, and which are the scary boot camps that have given outdoor treatment an unfairly bad reputation.
