Kristi Ragsdale is the Founder and Executive Director of Eva Carlston Academy. While each program had its own issues, Hilton says it was her 11-month long stint at Provo Canyon that was responsible for "the most vivid and traumatizing memories Ive ever experienced in my entire life." This means that she loses a certain number of points, usually between 2,000 and 20,000. they would give us as little time as possible to complete chores as well, often easily as little as 15 minutes to meet white glove standards. Rae*, 21, attended a behavioral health residential facility in Spring Valley, AZ from 2016 to 2017, and says she had been brainwashed to think the program had saved her. I was in a juvenile detention center before ECA and I can honestly say I got treated better there and had more rights. Treatment always works better when its integrated with real world situations. We are part of the mental health profession providing support for children, teens, and young adults struggling with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues., Refinery29 also obtained a copy of a cease-and-desist notice that Eva Carlston sent Kyra, demanding that she stop posting about her experience on TikTok. If its such an ineffective and emotionally damaging program, why do so many reviewers praise it? also you could earn 500 points by accepting no. so say if you asked if you really needed to pee, and the staff told you no, you then had to wait 15-20 minutes to disagree appropriately. (which could earn you 500 points if you did it appropriately) so at that point I usually pissed my pants a little bit and couldve gotten a UTI for all the times they made me wait. Our psychosocial and therapeutic groups are designed specifically for the needs of adolescent girls, and cover the following topics: Traditionally, adolescent females have been placed in addiction programs designed for delinquent boys. like I literally have 504 plan for it. CW: Descriptions of emotional abuse, mentions of eating disorders, drug use and suicideAn overview of the abuse I experienced at Eva Carlston Academy and the. okay there are so many fucked up things in that equation. i had the program director herself privately shame me into silence when i said my emotional safety was being compromised by staff. , This review is based on our daughters 12 month stay at Eva Carlston Academy in Salt Lake City, Utah. so I have severe ADHD. Thank you for loving your daughter enough to see the harm, to believe her, and to stand up for her. well this place was a fucking nightmare from day one. The rest of it was not only unhelpful for me but harmful and traumatic. I am 25 now and this place still causes me extreme emotional distress. she didnt mean to lose her dad. Call: 801-449-0089. Overall this place is fucking sneaky and staff dont know what the hell they are doing. Teens on the LGBTQI+ spectrum and as well as teens of color are especially affected by mental health issues. Oh and i flipped them off when the staff told me I was out of instructional control and somehow that translated to my education consultant to my parents as me screaming fuck you! hahahaa this place was a fucking joke. I tried to refuse to take away points or participate in the discipline, but they made it a necessary part of the job. I was constantly scared of getting in trouble for every thing I did. Our students may have experienced devastating trauma, clinical depression, loss, anxiety, or personality disorders. These are the things that will sustain healing and growth for a lifetime. I am genuinely sorry that your daughter has suffered in the way she has. also I would never ever be the person I am right now if I didnt persevere through all of that bullshit. Clean your own fuckin house, get some maids, you have the fuckin money. All residents are fed a highly low-fat diet with strict portion control. If you do get lucky enough to go on an outing, youll get severe punishments for even looking in the same direction of a male. For these reasons, it is rare for a student to complain about the program for fear of being reported and punished. The description of the petition reads, Girls under 18 and younger are signed away to Eva Carlston Academy, a residential treatment center that supposedly helps girls with addiction, eating disorders, depression, mood disorders and other mental health or behavioral issues. Girls develop their own relapse prevention plan at the completion of the group. At Eva Carlston Academy, we push our students to make sure they understand what it looks like to put effort into ourselves, and the benefits that . Aswell as we were force fed. , promiscuity, or substance abuse. Eva Carlston Academy does not accept transgender residents. you wouldnt be allowed to speak to anyone, read a book, write in your journal, or do anything except silently work on assignments and ask for more. It was the second program I was sent to after enduring the hell that is Eva Carlston Academy in Utah. The whole program is manipulative they use sneaky ways to abuse the power that they have which is disgusting. Oh and even if you werent on sub system if you had to take a midnight piss, you would have to get a staffs attention and ask and wait for a response and then go pee after they felt they were at a comfortable distance to be aware of where you were or some shit. When I say this place was a nightmareit was a motherfucking nightmare on steroids. Someone had to sit next to you while you ate to make sure that you finished ALL of it even though you were not required too. You would actually have to have a certification, and anything that's outside the bounds of that will be found as child abuse. The goal for this specific bill and many others is not only for it to pass, but also for other states to be able to replicate it. Privileges at Eva Carlston were given based on your phase and whether you made enough points that day. Many of our girls have limited or restricted their involvement in activities because of negative life experiences or emotional and social difficulties. I left Eva Carlston in August of 2016 and I am still working through the PTSD that I have from that place. Then when the gardener leaves they slowly realize that the flower is a weed and the weeds have spread. I would like to say thank you to DeAnna, Alex and Hannah if you ever see this. But its so emotionally abusive. These are just a few examples of what happened to me while I was there. No matter how girls who were there behaved, they left with regrets. In fact, if you refuse to eat or take too much food, you can be punished. Nothing from our visit with the students alerted us to the possibility of harm coming to our child. This was my fucking reality not too long ago. Eva Carlston Academy . Individual therapy helps students discover new ways to understand their difficulties and develop new skills for successfully addressing those difficulties. She previously worked as a Team Lead at, Like other behavior-modification programs, Eva Carlston Academy uses a level-system. Some staff would threaten us with the causes of getting in trouble if we didnt do something they wanted us too. Someone is and thats me. Admission into Eva Carlston Academy: The age for application into the academy is 12-18, with a maximum enrollment of about 44 girls. she then put me on arms because I told her I was a harm to myself and she thought I needed the extra support. The staff seemed more like prison guards. Eva Carlston Academy: Parent Review. Rayburn, like Kyra, isnt fully satisfied. Aswell as we were force fed. The therapeutic portion of ECA is functionally separate from the daily living milieu and its Family Teaching Model, resulting in a treatment model this is highly compartmentalized. Whatever therapeutic benefit there was, was trumped by the emotional abuse and cruel treatment as mentioned above. I have seen many girls, including myself, graduate and very quickly relapse into old, or even new and more severe, behaviors. at the end of Eva I had severe issues with food. I wanted to keel over and die. 1,722 Mentor jobs available in Bingham Cyn, UT on Indeed.com. Classic TTI I'm afraid. Even during unmonitored home visits (later in the year) our daughter did not complain as she was afraid of being punished upon her return to ECA if we had intervened with the program. 1. They couldn't risk telling you what they wanted to, and I think you can now see that from your own daughter's reluctance to tell you about it even when she was home. Our treatment approach is gender-specific, using the best, research-validated approaches for supporting womens mental health. Many of us would simply go to bed as soon as we were allowed in order to avoid staff confrontation. arms is when a staff is key word= SUPPOSED to be arms length away from you at all times. I am in no way shape or form exaggerating about this stuff. Apply to Counselor, Behavioral Health Manager, Sheriff and more! we were not treated like humans, we were treated dogs. One day a girl had asked several times to use the restroom but was denied. This place will steal your soul. u/Iloveflowersandboobs (Reddit), April 2020: (SURVIVOR) Eva Carlston Academys website has been carefully designed to depict their residential treatment center as a caring and nurturing environment where teenage girls can feel physically and emotionally safe enough to process and recover from trauma and mental illness. As someone who actually lived here, ECA is NOT the haven these reviews paint it to be. We were given no choice with regards to the daily workout; we were forced to participate in the preselected program or we would receive negative consequences. Between 2005 and 2017, when social media usage grew . Kay says she was taken to the school in the night through an escort system, similar to the one Hilton experienced. There is no formal eating disorder treatment or meal support available to students. the tactics they pulled bordered on conversion therapy if you didnt knuckle down and let them shut you up. Snacks are given based upon your daily score card results and often leads to girls going to bed hungry and being malnourished due to the lack of food. Our daughter experienced heightened anxiety due to the intense scrutiny and struggled with the constant fear of earning negative consequences. everyone was punished for crying, especially if you cried when punished. [Courtney] was very adamant that she was trained at a WWASP school, says Sara Hubbell, 22, who attended Spring Ridge Academy from February 2016 to August 2018. I have watched girls breakdown from staff being mean and staff telling them they keep doing this wrong and that they didnt do this right and why cant you do that better and go do that now or else. so I had to come up with three options, disadvantages and advantages. The campus contains three houses, in which anywhere from 12 to 16 girls live. Every day I counted my card every 5 minutes and brainstormed constantly about how I was going to make enough points for the day so I could eat an extra 100 calories or so after dinner and chat nervously with my friends. Find your life. arms is when a staff is key word= SUPPOSED to be arms length away from you at all times. I will say that staff there(not including the owner and founder, Kristi Ragsdale) are mainly caring people, but they cant help when the entire program is behavior based. Hannah (Google Reviews), 4//3/2016: (SURVIVOR) I dont even know where to begin with this place. If you have after meal clean up you sweep/mop all wood floor, vacuum both rugs, wash dishes, clear and spray counters, have someone check it off to make sure it is acceptable. There is no formal eating disorder treatment or meal support available to students. you wouldnt be allowed to speak to anyone, read a book, write in your journal, or do anything except silently work on assignments and ask for more. for all chores we had every single room white glove tested and if it wasnt clean goes what!!! my parents had to demand a private phone call with me to find out all the freaky shit that was going on and even during my so called private phone call there was this psycho staff that came in and told me if I didnt hang up that she would physically take the phone from me even though I had permission and yeah that still makes no sense to me. Legal Circle; Research Library; Facility Report Database . She described one that took place early on in her year-long stay as being particularly disturbing. The girls cannot tell their parents what is really happening there without consequences. ECA bases its campus culture, or milieu, on the Family Teaching Model made popular by Boys Town. Most of them needed love, affection, and attention (in my opinion). He had previously worked as the Medical Director of Island View RTC and later, as the Medical Director of Solstice RTC. L.M. However girls who arrive there are emotionally and psychologically abused by staff and directors. It was the worse 11 months of my life. However, as of 2021, it appears that ECA is no longer a member of this organization. I still have panic attacks if I hear the words "residential treatment" or if I have to clean anything while on a time limit. We are to young to be doing all of this. The campus contains three houses, in which anywhere from 12 to 16 girls live. This was supposed to be a safe place, a therapeutic environment. okay lets just try to move right along. so the girl got on focus because on her visit she and her dad lost each other. They are punished regularly. We utilize a wide-range of clinically validated interventions to help students try new activities, develop new skills, get involved in their community, and increase problem-solving skills and independence. Unresolved: Release in which this issue/RFE will be addressed. Makes sense that parents would appreciate the company that relieved them of 12-18 months of parenting responsibilities. Communication with parents is restricted and constantly monitored Ive seen and heard of girls doing things like self-harm and starving themselves just to be able to go to the hospital so they could tell their parents the truth about how they were being treated without fear of repercussions. Anonymous (Niche), 1/1/2021: (SURVIVOR) I have attended ECA twice. I was constantly scared of getting in trouble for every thing I did. worked as a Psychiatrist at Eva Carlston. 6 months later I finally talked to my mom about it on a phone call. I think I did just two sessions with the clinical director and it brought up a ton of detailed memories of events that I hadnt remembered, which obviously triggered a lot and I started, not relapsing but going backwards I guess, Kyra says. they rated her every night like she was a yelp review. second, eva carlston makes themselves look great for the first hmm maybe first month then hides the mistreatment. I have watched girls breakdown from staff being mean and staff telling them they keep doing this wrong and that they didnt do this right and why cant you do that better and go do that now or else. From what we saw, the therapists are not able to influence changes to the daily milieu to advance individual therapies or even promote opinions about activities to which the are opposed. They never called 911, because they weren't allowed to. A spokesperson for Eva Carlston declined to comment on these incidents, citing HIPAA laws. for all chores we had every single room white glove tested and if it wasnt clean goes what!!! I dont. linktr.ee/evacarlstonacademybcs. Talk about insanity! LeadCandy provides Full Profile, verified Email Address, Social Profile links, and Mutual Contacts of Eva Carlston Academy employees. Our daughter experienced heightened anxiety due to the intense scrutiny and struggled with the constant fear of earning negative consequences. There was no follow up with our parents after therapy appointments so they had no clue about our medical/mental health. okay so in school you could get consequences for getting below a 70% on a quiz / test. Not one more child needs to die of preventable causes in these centers, Hilton says. Im looking at this program for my daughter. This type of cruel punishment made my anxiety triple. 411 Counselor jobs available in Terra, UT on Indeed.com. Cross Creek has been linked to the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP), a now-dissolved umbrella organization of independent institutions geared toward so-called troubled teenagers although the founder of the network, founded by Robert B. Lichfield. There were some therapeutic benefits, but they were by far outweighed by the emotional abuse, intimidation, and extreme conditions. After a year of learning to ignore hunger signals, our daughter, once a healthy eater of normal weight, left the program with disordered eating. We had to eat every bit of food on our plates in a specified time frame, for example breakfast was required to be finished within 10 minutes including preparation. Welcome To Eva Carlston Academy. The staff comes across as uncaring and inhumane given the fact that these girls are intimidated and punished for showing any sign of emotion. Please sign this petition to investigate and hopefully shut down Eva. Often you would then be late to wherever you were going, which resulted in you receiving a minimum negative consequence of -5000. Them anything but what had happened the past week and if I dared talk about the program in a negative way I would get a hefty 5000 NEGATIVE points which was half of what I needed to make every day to get my privileges. They locked it in a closet and never let me use it. Its like you can either get with the program or not. then I told my therapist I was experiencing these things and she gave me the same look everyone else was giving me. so I went into Eva with depression, anxiety, ptsd and a tiny bit of substance abuse. CORE stands for Customized Objectives and Realistic Expectations; which emphasizes our individual approach to helping parents meet their goals. Residential Treatment Center for teenage girls licensed in the State of Utah with a focus on the arts All the girls felt in danger and the owner. Poor mental health can lead to destructive habits such as alcohol abuse, drug use, or risky sexual behaviors. I remember I had terrible eczema while I was there (due to high stress). if you started crying when they gave you negative points, they would progressively increase the number you got. If its such an ineffective and emotionally damaging program, why do so many reviewers praise it? Theyre best described as really, really intense therapy, more like brainwashing. Hubbell says Courtney ran the trainings, which they also call feedback heavy. She called me up and essentially forced me to expose my deepest, darkest trauma, they say. Some of the offshoots, including The Seed and Straight Inc. targeted teens. If you ever disagreed with a consequence you were asked to wait 10-15 minutes to disagree appropriately. You must start with a statement like I understand, give an empathy statement, re- state what they said to you, and then accept their decision. so you could earn positive points by following instructions. I have seen many girls, including myself, graduate and very quickly relapse into old, or even new and more severe, behaviors. Many of us would simply go to bed as soon as we were allowed in order to avoid staff confrontation. i was so brainwashed by the end that i would habitually thank the staff for punishing me because crying is apparently manipulation that had to be beaten out of me. or being more efficient with day to day activities. Corrie Norman is the current Academic Director of Eva Carlston. so first, -2000 points, then an additional -5000, then -10000, then -50000. it was horrible. Because it is unbelievable it's unbelievable that this is going on in this day and age., Hopefully, it wont be going on for much longer. However, we later learned that faculty instituted the rules and the use of point cards in a negative way. Girls are still suffering there and need your help. I pleaded staff to please get me lotion for my eczema and I got in trouble. if you started crying when they gave you negative points, they would progressively increase the number you got. if youre not going to read this long ass paragraph, just please listen to these next three things. The school at Eva offered her a lot of support and she was able to experience success in ways that she never had before. Oh yeah and after I left something similar happened to a girl who got there around the same time as me who struggled with trigatalomania and they wouldnt let her leave, restrained her because she didnt want to get a buzzcut to fix her patchy hair, and put her on subtraction system the whole time she was there because of a disease she CANNOT HELP! In this family-style setting we were told the girls learn a strength-based approach to skill building, problem solving and emotional regulation, social-skills development, and preparation for independent living. For example you receive negative points for sharing negative opinions, being upset about a previous consequence, and showing emotion after therapy. While at ECA, I was shamed for my drug addiction and forced to read aloud to a group of girls the details of my rape and sexual abuse. There were very few staff that genuinely cared and they left because they said there were sketchy things about Eva Carlston they did not want to be around. Despite the fact that the program was created to help adolescents with behavioral issues, I was forced to stay for an entire year. While at ECA, I was shamed for my drug addiction and forced to read aloud to a group of . According to one survivor, if you didnt make enough points in one day (generally either 10,000 or 5,000 depending on level in the program), you had to sit in a silent room working on essays such as the importance of managing anxiety and the importance of accepting no or making what were essential pro and cons lists on dealing with inane situations. Eva Carlston Academy is a residential treatment program designed to help teenage girls grow and improve while overcoming the difficulties of emotional and behavioral disorders. Then I asked to speak to the authorities and they told me I would have to find a phone which there were none and they told me I couldnt leave sooo wtf again. you could earn a whole 500 points by saying okay then doing the task you were told to do then check back ( just saying you completed it). I survived (I say survived because I actually had to zone out for the two months I wasn't allowed to speak and lived in my own world) ECA. They were sneaky with our money too. The nutritional habits they instill are extreme and even opposite of what nutritionists advise.