Elevations RTC

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Elevations RTC
Address
2650 West 2700 South

Syracuse
,
Davis County
,
Utah
84075
Information
Former nameIsland View Residential Treatment Center
School typeFor-profit program, residential treatment center for adolescents classified as emotionally disturbed
Founded1994; rebranded in 2014
FoundersDr. W. Dean Belnap, M.D., Lorin A. Broadbent, D.S.W., Jared U. Balmer, PhD., and W. Kimball DeLaMare, L.C.S.W.
DeanRyan Mortensen[2]
Age range13 to 18
Classes offeredSocial Studies, Mathematics, English, Science, Spanish, and Art[3]
Campus typeSecured/Locked
AccreditationsCognia (education)[4]
Tuition$192,000 annually[5]
AffiliationNational Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP)[6]
AlumniMisha Osherovich;[7] Parker Bagley;[8] Bryn Woznicki;[9] Lillian Lennon,[10] Mallory Richards[11]
OwnerFamily Help & Wellness, formerly Aspen Education and CRC Health Group[1]
Websitehttps://www.elevationsrtc.com/

Elevations RTC is a residential treatment center in Syracuse, Utah for teens ages 13–18.[12] The facility was formerly known as Island View Residential Treatment Center until 2014, when it was acquired by Syracuse RTC, LLC, which does business as Elevations RTC.[13] The Elevations campus is shared with Seven Stars and ViewPoint Center.[14]

Background[]

Opening of Syracuse Campus[]

The Syracuse campus initially opened in 1994 as the Island View Residential Treatment Center.[15] Its founders were Lorin Broadbent, DSW; Jared Balmer, PhD; and W. Kimball DeLaMare, LCSW.[16] They created their center after leaving other failed "tough love" treatment programs.[17][18][19]

In 2004, Aspen Education Group acquired Island View.[16] CRC Health Group, a company owned by Bain Capital,[20] purchased Aspen Education for $300 million in 2006.[21] Aspen and CRC Health Group owned and operated the Syracuse campus until 2014.

Rebranding to Elevations RTC[]

In April 2014, Syracuse RTC, LLC acquired Island View and changed the name to Elevations RTC.[22][23][13] Elevations' applications, policies, and procedures are largely the same as those at Island View.[24][25][unreliable source?]

Many Elevations employees also worked at Island View.[25][26] These include Elevations' executive director Judi Jacques, MEd; clinical director Jennifer Wilde, LCSW; medical director Dr. Michael Connolly; admissions director Laura Burt; program director Eric Flores; and dean of students Jen Capellen.[25][26]

Elevations has branded itself as a "residential treatment center that works with students of all genders".[27] The facility today caters to a large population of transgender and gender non-conforming teens, partially caused by the lack of other treatment centers that accept transgender students into their programs.[28]

Partnership with Family Help and Wellness[]

Elevations is partnered with Wilderness Training & Consulting, LLC, an Oregon-based company doing business as Family Help & Wellness.[29][30] The company was founded by Tim Dupell,[29] who was the executive vice president and CFO of Aspen Education from 1999 until 2004.[25] Family Help & Wellness provides management, financial, and marketing support to Elevations’ ownership team.[29]

Leadership at Island View and Elevations have since branched into partnerships with several other troubled teen programs owned by Family Help & Wellness,[31] including Solstice RTC, Solstice East,[32] Equinox RTC, and Trails Carolina.[33]

Programming[]

The program at Elevations includes individual, family, and group therapy, an educational program, and recreation activities.[12] The Elevations School is accredited by Cognia.[4] Most classes at Elevations meet college entrance requirements.[34]

Elevations utilizes a level system consisting of five tiers.[34][35] Students in higher levels have additional privileges.[34][35][25]

The base level is the Orientation Phase and the status is referred to as "Community Break", which is designed for students who have violated rules and are significantly disrupting the community.[34][35] While on Community Break, students may not communicate with peers or make phone calls and at night are required to sleep in the hallway under its fluorescent lights. Students may be on Community Break for considerable lengths of time, often with other restrictions or sanctions. Sleep deprivation has been reported by students on community break and individual focus.[34][35][36]

Front of a building at Elevations

A common consequence for misbehavior includes "Individual Focus" or "Team Focus", a form of isolation in which students are required to sit silently for hours or days.[25][34][35] During this time, students often are prohibited from attending class and cannot communicate with their peers.[25] They are not able to talk to staff and can communicate only by writing on a piece of paper. Elevations also uses an isolation chamber approximately four by four feet in size.[25] According to Elevations, therapeutic holds or physical (non-mechanical) restraints are a necessary part of what the program does.[36] However, there are multiple documented cases of physical injury at the hands of staff members when performing physical restraints.[37]

Phone use at Elevations is restricted and mail is closely monitored.[34][35] Elevations prohibits students from accessing email, but does allow them to communicate with their families electronically through a system called Family Bridge.[34][35] Students are permitted to write letters to family. At Elevations, all residential buildings have locked doors.[38]

Tuition at Elevations costs approximately $16,000 per month or $192,000 per year.[5] According to Elevations, the average stay is eight to ten months, although students often stay there much longer[34] Insurance companies have often denied coverage on the grounds that long-term care at Elevations is not medically necessary.[39]

Elevations provides parents a list of typical things that kids new to the program may say to manipulate their parents into letting them come home.[40][41][34] Common statements include "I feel unsafe, they treat us like we are in prison, the faculty are trying to brainwash us, and they lied to you about what this place is, it is nothing like they said."[41][34] Parents are told these statements are either exaggerations or lies[40][42] and to avoid such "parenting traps".[41][34][43]

Controversy[]

Allegations of abuse and mistreatment[]

Many former residents at Elevations and Island View have alleged experiencing some form of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse at the Syracuse facility.[25][36] They describe staff tormenting and abusing them, and leaving the program with more trauma than they came in with.[25] A petition exists with almost 2,500 signatures to shut Elevations down.[44]

A September 2020 incident at Elevations, in which a student was rendered unconscious after hitting his head while being restrained, prompted an investigation by the Utah Department of Human Services Office of Licensing.[36] The case is still open.[45]

In 2018, a former resident filed a lawsuit against Elevations RTC, alleging that a staff member threw her to the floor.[46] The girl alleged that as a result she sustained traumatic brain and nerve damage resulting in permanent disfigurement of her eye and impaired vision.[46] Despite her headaches, nausea, vomiting, and double vision, the former resident alleged that Elevations failed to provide medical assistance for six days.[46] Elevations settled the case in September 2019, and the court dismissed it with prejudice.[47]

A teen held at Elevations from 2018 to 2019 told one news source that he was overmedicated and that he broke his hand while there and staff did not bring him to the nurse.[48] Consistent with other reports, the former resident also said that he was kept in a hallway for 14 days.[48] In response, Elevations explained that this type of treatment is “more of an art than a science."[48]

Inspection reports of the facility from 2015 through 2019 show 35 violations, including insufficient documentation pertaining to seclusion methods, repeated citations for missing paperwork related to staff training, and mildew or mold in the bathrooms.[36]

Elevations has also been accused of practicing conversion therapy.[10] Transgender activist Lillian Lennon told Mashable that while in the residential treatment center, she was shuttled between a boys' dorm and an isolation quarter.[10] She says staff refused to call her by her pronouns and dismissed her gender identity as an "excuse to be promiscuous."[10] Transgender students were barred from rooming with cisgender students on the dorms and during group trips.

In 2014, the Utah Department of Human Services detailed students' claims that staff at Elevations were mistreating them, including using restraint on them too often when unwarranted and belittling them.[25]

Around the time the facility was renamed Elevations RTC, Island View was at the center of two highly publicized lawsuits in 2014, one with Dr. Phil, alleging that the center "maintained a prison-like environment where physical and psychological torture were used against students",[49][50][51][52] which were subsequently dismissed.[53][54][55][56][57][58][59] The lawsuit which included Dr. Phil alleged that a teenage girl's arm was broken and its main nerve severely damaged during an incident with staff at Island View after Dr. Phil had offered to pay for the girl's treatment there following a 2013 appearance on his TV show.[60][61]

Several former residents of the center claimed in 2012 that they had received inadequate medical care during their time there, and that they had been subjected to solitary confinement and other harsh physical and psychological treatment.[62]

In 2007, the disappearance of a 15-year-old resident made headlines after she made a short-lived attempt to escape the facility.[63] After her parents returned her to Island View, the girl says she was punished for running away by being put in isolation for 58 days.[25]

In 2004, a 16-year-old boy hung himself in a bathroom at Island View.[64] The staff were unsuccessful in reviving him.[65] Island View was cited for providing inadequate medical care to the child, placed on probation, and required to submit a plan of corrective action.[65]

In 2002, a former resident filed a $135 million lawsuit against her father in part for having her admitted to Island View where she says she was traumatized.[66]

Many former residents have also reported that sedatives were given at Island View to quell disobedience.[67]

The local Syracuse Police Department has responded to 219 emergency calls at the facility's address between January 2005 and October 2020.[68][36] Many of the calls have been related to abuse, sex offenses, or suicide attempts.[68][36]

Breaking Code Silence[]

Former Island View and Elevations residents, including Island View alumnus actor Misha Osherovich, attended a rally held by Paris Hilton in protest of alleged abuse at Provo Canyon School and programs for at-risk youth, and spoke out about the abuse they claimed occurred.[69] Elevation's clinical director, Jordan Killpack, is a former Provo Canyon School therapist.[70]

Freaky star Osherovich described their experience at Island View on the website Them.[71] Osherovich likened what the facility did to conversion therapy.[71] The American Bar Association hosted a panel with Osherovich, Hilton, Senator Sara Gelser, and the mother of a former Island View resident, which explored youth being funneled into prison-like "behavior modification" centers under the guise of treatment and conversion therapy.[72]

Other alumni have come forward alleging abuse as part of the Breaking Code Silence movement.[73] The former students describe being held in seclusion rooms, sleep deprivation, attack therapy, and being drugged with psychotropics, amongst other things.[73][74]

The alumni association has an in memoriam for over fifty former residents of Island View and Elevations who have died in their teens, twenties, and early thirties, the majority of them due to suicide, overdose, and violence. One mother published a book about losing her daughter to suicide within months of the teen leaving Island View.[11]

COVID-19 Cases[]

Multiple cases of COVID-19 were confirmed among the students at Elevations RTC in December 2020. Although Elevations RTC shared the information with parents on a private site the facility uses to communicate with families, some parents felt that Elevations' communication with families was poor throughout the outbreak.[75]

References[]

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External links[]

Coordinates: 41°04′34″N 112°04′35″W / 41.076003°N 112.076433°W / 41.076003; -112.076433

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