I went to a mentally abusive treatment facility though they later explained it was neither a treatment center nor a medical center.
As I would come to learn GHA was on heals watch list for years. I was at risk of seizures and dt's from substance abuse. They denied me medical care for the first three months and denied outside communication for six weeks. All phone calls had to be closely monitored and would be immediately ended if you complained about abuse. I spoke up every day for the first three weeks to the staff while at Gatehouse Academy about fraud and medical malpractice. This place tried to purposely misdiagnose me and my friend with a serious mental illness as a form of punishment. Their main psyche nurse was operating with out any type of actual mental health training as a psych nurse. Place was closed down after the CEO was busted for wire fraud, money laundering drug charges and gun charges. He convinced family members to donate money to a park and instead kept the money for drugs. Place had five campuses shut down for non compliance with licensing standards and they instead just moved one state over and started up their operations.
The new campus closed after 9 months because staff started havering sex with underage clients and handing out illegal drugs to minors. I tried to bring to light the fact that the company was committing fraud and not conducting regular narc counts only to face threats and consequences of all day work crew and dc'd family communication. This place denied the seriously mentally Ill basic medical treatment for months on end. I could go on and on about the straight up fraud, waste and mental abuse but I do not have time. What we need to know is their should be more oversight and regulations when it comes to these therapeutic boarding schools or centers. They say they can work with almost any mental illness or disorder. It took years just to get people to start believing that the fraud was actually taking place.
Still to this day the old clients justify the abuse they went through. There are no laws on the books to make many of these places follow basic guidelines that every other sector in mental health treatment follows like having strict finger print clearance policies. Make sure to see how the place is regulated. Get all promises and policies in writing. Do a sight visit. If detoxification is part of treatment make sure the place is licensed to provide such care. Make sure to see if their are any documented state violations or concerning state evaluations. See how they train the majority of the lower paid staff. With more regulations comes better allocation of resources better training and better pay for the same jobs. Affective professional help is available to low income individuals in licensed and regulated facilities around America. You can get long term evidenced based treatment at an affordable cost with well trained and well paid staff.
Finally Gatehouse Academy closed in 2012 but it had taken years of advocating just to get the state to close most of the campuses. The sad fact is GHA had dozens of chances to regulate their extended campuses and they chose money over proper training and treatment. If you got diagnosed with a mi while at the ranch I beg you to speak with an actual trained mental health professional that has experience in the field. Abuse in healthcare has so many definitions other then actual physical abuse. GHA ranch and Idaho staff got off extremely light. Every single staff member that worked at the ranch in 2010 was involved or either complacent in abuse and fraud.
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Thank you so much for writing this. I did 12 months at Gatehouse in 2011 and it was a horrible experience for me as well. This has inspired me to share my story.
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