My Nonprofit Reviews
Writer
Review for Intermountain , Helena, MT, USA
Intermountain should be closed down!!
Intermountain try to keep the child as long as possible for their own financial gain ($15,000 per month per child!!).
I am also disgusted with how Intermountain treat the children.
They use 'holding therapy' (physically restraining children against their will as therapy). They also practice 'strong sitting' (the child is made to sit on the floor and is not allowed to move or speak). Intermountain use holdings as threats and punishments to the children. They use it as a form of discipline and this needs to be stopped. The authorities need to investigate this. It causes the children emotional harm, anger, frustration and low self esteem, not to mention risk of injury. IM amplifies and enhances the children's fears and traumas. The children are violated from the holding therapy and have strong feelings of helpnessness. A child should ONLY be restrained to protect them from hurting themselves or others and should ONLY be done using a basket hold (standing). Intermountain do not practice this, they restrain on the floor, often with 2 members of staff and for extended periods of time, for reasons such as non compliance or a child being rude!
Intermountain monitor all phone calls that the children make. The calls are all on speaker with IM staff sitting with them. So, if the child was suffering from mistreatment or abuse from a member of staff they would be too afraid to report it. Intermountain is a cesspool. They only write negative things about the children in reports and meetings, most of which are misinterpretations of the truth.
I have witnessed IM staff belittling the children and speaking to them in a cruel and demeaning manner. There are others that share my view that many of the staff are not positive role models for the children. To put it blunt many of the people they hire are white trash that don't even like children. Some staff members don't even take care of their own children. IM staff do NOT have the children's best interests at heart. They couldn't care less about what the children want and do not give them choices.
They do not spend quality time with the children and are there to enforce rules only.
The therapists heighten the children's fears with many talks about being safe/unsafe. IM re-activates their trauma, causing them to become anxious.
Children are given too many (and unnecessary) medications. Children are often wrongly diagnosed by the dr that sees the Intermountain children.
Parents are sending their children to this facility hoping their children will come back fixed. Intermountain is not the answer and just leaves the child with more issues and emotional scarring.
IM is extremely strict, which wouldn't be AS bad if they also had the nurturing and caring piece, which they don't.
Children feel alone and are left crying with no one to comfort them.
Intermountain invent and exaggerate children's problems in order to keep them at IM for longer. They have denied the children loving families in order to keep them at this institution. They also pass false information on to social workers and families.
It is true and has been said that IM treat children like objects. They claim to be one of the best treatment centers in the country, yet they do not care for children adequately. A hard look needs to be taken at this facility and its staff. They really need to be more selective about who they hire.
The staff do not respect the children's religious preferences (such as putting pork on a Jewish child's plate against her wishes when the staff were fully aware she was on a kosher diet).
In some of the cottages, visitors are not allowed to speak to the children. They make these children feel worthless. They also deny children visits with family members if they have a bad day.
The children are fed very small portions of food and often go hungry. The lunches at IM consist of a small bowl of canned soup and canned fruit. The dinners are freshly cooked at least yet they are still not given a sufficient amount.
As one of the IM rules is asking permission to go to the bathroom, some of the children become desperate or wet themselves as they are ignored when asked if they can go or are to afraid to ask.
The intermountain staff all need to take training in TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention). It will teach them that children need to feel taken of. They need to do things for the children so they will feel cared for. They need to offer them second helpings of dinner, listen to them when they have a problem and give them TLC.
The staff also need to learn safe ways to restrain and when it is appropriate to restrain.
The children are very seldom taken off campus and so they are confined to the grounds of Intermountain. Over time, some of these children become fearful of leaving the campus or feel like they don't deserve to go.
Children are forced to attend religious services at the chapel at IM, even if it is not their belief to practice that specific or any religion.
Many of the staff should not be allowed to work with children. I have witnessed control freaks, cruelty and emotional abuse.
When visitors come to IM they appear to make IM look amazing (to try and encourage more donations). They will give speeches on how the children have made progress and make a lot of effort into making themselves look good.
Even though IM get a large amount of money for each child, they STILL use donations to buy clothing/shoes and other items for the children. What are they doing with the money for the children??
Intermountain have a tendency to split siblings up. They will say that the child does better without the sibling even when there has been no evidence of abuse or issues between the siblings. I witnessed siblings that missed each other and wanted to be placed together. Not only did IM not have them placed together but they also did not allow visitation!
IM staff do not understand what reactive attachment disorder is. RAD is often a misunderstood condition, it does not mean that a child is incapable of attaching to caregivers or others. It means that some children that have been abused, neglected or subjected to poor early relationships may develop certain ways of relating to others based on their early experiences. Most children who have attachment problems are able to form bonds and IM staff need to understand their attachment styles. IM staff have no experience with adoption related issues and IM hire many people that are simply just looking for a job.
Intermountain is in an isolated location, far from many of the children's families. Statistics show that residential care is rarely helpful/beneficial to children. Families need to be actively involved and visit their children at least weekly. Studies prove that instead of residential care, there are other better alternatives. Such as: Functional family therapy and trauma based cognitive behavioral therapy.
Families that are reading this please think carefully about this and do not send your children here.
IM staff and DHS are in cohoots with each other, nothing is being done to address the issues. The running of IM needs to be evaluated and changed. The staff are incompetent and don't have the needs of the children at heart. Intermountain is money motivated and not child focused!
Lastly, I am doubtful that the authorities in MT will close down IM. MT allows places like IM (and even worse) to operate, including residential homes without licenses (if they are faith based). In states that are not so remote, such as NY, residential homes like this would not even exist!
The accusations and misrepresentations in this review, and several other reviews posted, seem to be coming from a family that had hoped to adopt a child that was residing at Intermountain. If this is in fact the case, I feel that this is a calculated attack on our program based on upsets that the adoption was not approved or supported first and foremost by the State of Montana (DPHHS) and secondly by the Intermountain treatment team and other professionals, i.e. CASA volunteer. The placement did not seem to be appropriate based on concerns that came up as the family went through the process. While I can understand the heartache of having a dream like adopting a child fall through, I find it unfortunate that this attacking review is the way that the pain of this situation is being addressed. It only impacts the children and families that are searching for help or are currently receiving it and find our treatment and care of our children to be quite the opposite of the above accusations. To the individual that posted this review, I hope you will contact our Quality Assurance Director and place a formal complaint if you are concerned with the care we provide to children. We encourage individuals to bring their concerns to the appropriate place to be evaluated and addressed. I will not engage in an on-line battle about facts or perceptions nor will I participate in personal attacks on this family. However, I feel that I need to provide a response to some completely inaccurate statements in the above review in order to help others that deserve an opportunity to correctly understand our treatment. The allegation that Intermountain keeps children in care longer for our own financial gain is fully misinformed and inaccurate. In fact we are often running into the opposite situation. Families are asking that we keep their children longer as they feel confident in the care and treatment they are receiving and are nervous to take the child home due to normal and reasonable fears. We work with this common dynamic and provide transitional support through home visits and helping to find appropriate aftercare services for what their child needs. We believe children need to be in their homes when it is possible, supportive, and safe. There have been instances where we have suggested longer treatment due to clinical concerns that are occurring within the case, but it has never been for financial gain. We have a long waiting list of children whose families are in crisis and want the child placed immediately. Keeping our current children longer than is appropriate for that child would be counterproductive for us from a clinical and financial standpoint. We DO NOT use holding therapy at Intermountain. We do physically contain the children, but only as a last resort and for safety, never for being rude or non-compliant. Our staff are highly trained in safe techniques to perform these physical containments, and other staff that are not a part of the situation monitor each containment that occurs. We call these holdings to use a term that is less confrontational and more supportive for the children. We avoid emotional processing during these holdings and let the child know that we will keep them safe until they are able to be safe on their own. Holding therapy is a technique suggested by some professionals in the field, but we DO NOT ever use a physical containment as a means to process treatment issues with children, thus do not do holding therapy. We specifically say phrases like “We need to sit up and talk about feelings in a healthy way and will do that when you are able to calm down and be safe.” The above review is accurate in the fact that we perform these holdings on the floor. This is intentional and for purposes of safety, as our kids are often extreme enough in their rage that the holding is more safely performed on the floor than standing and having risk of everyone falling. Two adults are only used in situations where the child is so out of control that two adults are required for safety for the child and/or staff. The holdings must be approved by a clinician if it is becoming long, and the first priority is getting the child to a calm enough state to end the holding. We do support the phone calls that the children are having with their parents. We find this to be appropriate to provide treatment interventions that are in conjunction with the parents. Children and families alike find this to be very supportive. When legal guardians ask to speak to their child without a staff present, the request is always allowed. Our staff are trained to utilize supportive language. Nurture is a significant part of our treatment. We also have firm boundaries and limits to provide high vigilance and safety for our children. We serve children with very specific needs that require for us to be vigilant and structured. This level of structure may not seem necessary to some, but we are not willing to risk putting any of our kids in harm’s way by being too loose with our structure. The children (and often the families too) become very connected to the staff. Kids get hugs, nurture, and engage in a variety of fun activities with the staff to help the kids take opportunities to just be kids. Treatment is hard, and these kids work hard; we believe that fun and love are not only what a child needs, but also a part of balancing the hard work. Our children are provided with age appropriate portion sizes at meals and are provided with at least 2 snacks every day, but often more. What typical portion sizes look like in our society make the recommended portion size for a child look pretty small. Many of our children come in overweight. We never put them on a diet, but we do practice and teach appropriate portion consumption. Our kids don’t go hungry, they are fed a balanced diet, and we use established programs to help us calculate ideal nutrition and caloric intake. We have a clinician on staff that is trained in TBRI. We understand and utilize the concepts of this approach in addition to a number of other evidence based practices, such as EMDR. All of our staff are trained extensively to provide trauma informed care, and they do a nice job of it. I am not suggesting we are perfect or that we don’t mess up at times, as we are human and this is very difficult work. I can, however, confidently say that our staff understand both RAD and attachment difficulties very well. Many adoptive parents that have participated in our residential treatment with their adoptive child will confirm that we understand this population and our treatment approach and professionals are very helpful. We provide optional services that support spiritual development for our children in treatment based on the approval and/or request of their parents. Children are not forced to attend the services provided, though it may be necessary for a child to go to the same building as the services are in to provide adequate child to staff ratios. There are many children that come into our care on a variety of medications and we do use medications as a tool within our treatment model for children when necessary. Children are often taken off the majority, if not all medications that they come in on and we operate under the practice of using the least possible dose of the least possible medications when utilizing medications as a tool. One very important fact about our use of medications is that Vitamin D and Melatonin are the two “medications” that are most prescribed for our children. Intermountain Residential services are not only licensed by the State of Montana, but also accredited by Council on Accreditation, which is a well-known and highly respected entity that holds very high standards of care for the organizations that become accredited by them. They were thoroughly impressed with our services on their last site review. They spoke with both children and parents without Intermountain staff present. We are always happy to have families come and tour our facilities, talk to our kids and our staff, as well as to contact families that have previously participated in our Residential treatment. If any parents that are considering placing their child in treatment are concerned with the above review, please come visit us and see what we are really about rather than allowing these accusations to limit your options to help your family. Meegan Bryce, MSW Intermountain Residential Director
