Provo Canyon School

The Provo Canyon School was set up in 1971. Jack Williams and William H Christ set it up at Provo in Utah. The school has gone on to be a 280 plus-bed residence cum treatment facility. There are two sections of the school now, at Provo, which is for boys and at Orem, which is for girls. Orem is a town located adjacent to Provo. Provo Canyon School treats children and adolescents for learning disabilities, emotional and behavioral problems. Drug addiction and alcohol addiction is countered here through various programs. Socially dysfunctional students are also treated here. Such treatment needs a secluded environment and a specialized staff. The staff includes a team of therapists, supervisors, and nurses.

The school has planned several steps that should promote overall development of the child. The focus is to make the children responsible for their actions. These include making their own bed, maintaining cleanliness among other things. Taking the medicines themselves is an added responsibility they must follow. The students are also made to be part of fundraisers and volunteers at charity events. The school children have helped raise some money for the Katrina relief package.

Since 2003, the Provo Canyon boys have on every December been active participants of the Native American Christmas project. Academics and treatment are mixed well at the school. The activities of each day are so planned that the students have no time for idleness. Social interaction and pro-active events are held at the school. This may cause the children to shed their inhibitions and mingle with the school crowd. They make new friends and develop new relationships. Many introvert students are forced to break out of their shells and interact.

At that time, Provo Canyon School had two campuses and three programs (a boy's campus, a girl's campus, and an early adolescent program) all operating somewhat independently of each other. The units were large, as many as 30 youth on one unit, and the division of labour between therapists and group living staff did not provide the desired cohesion needed to exact long-term sustainable outcomes desired in the youth. Group living caregivers were primarily tasked with carrying out structure and supervision, and the therapists were viewed as the treatment givers. Both divisions had different focuses and expectations of the youth that occasioned some lack of harmony in the treatment team.

The treatment emphasis at Provo Canyon School at the time was to provide a highly structured and rigid program of rules, expectations, and consequences. This model continued to work very well for students who were behaviourally troubled and defiantly oppositional and who needed strict consequence for choice. Yet, there was enough recidivism in discharged students to warrant improvements in the program that suggested changing a patient's inner beliefs and attitudes, as well as their outer behaviours.

The team concept arose out of a desire to provide a better product for Provo Canyon School's clients, which equated to an improvement in long-term, sustainable outcomes. Simply, the School wanted youth to make quicker and more lasting changes that provided a better quality of life for them and their families. For this to happen, Provo Canyon School shifted its treatment focus from enforced structure of rules and consequence to a strength-based empowerment model where patients were empowered to make deeper changes in attitudes and beliefs, as well as outer behaviours.

This required a treatment team unity more than Provo Canyon School had ever experienced before. All members of the treatment team needed to unify themselves to a common philosophy and treatment goal, each playing their role. Each team member was viewed as equally important, although they each played a different role. No one could say that one position was more important than the other, and everyone needed to work together for the common good of the patient.

The first step was to erase long-standing departmental identities that existed between group living and therapy. The departments of therapy and group living at Provo Canyon School were eliminated and brought together under the title of Clinical Services under the direction of a clinical director. The roles of both therapists and group living were redefined to more accurately dictate their purpose and function. Provo Canyon School staff members were renamed “coaches” suggesting that their purpose was no longer merely to exact discipline and structure, but to take a more active role in coaching the youth on their treatment goals. Therapists and coaches were formed together into smaller treatment teams so that they could develop stronger rapport and cohesiveness.

Provo Canyon School's change also required that the youth be broken up into more manageable teams. Teams were created of 10 to 11 youth who were assigned to the same therapist and coaches. The term team suggested that a spirit of unity and support be established, much like a sports team with coaches and players.

The second step was to create an environment of care and concern at Provo Canyon School within each team so that team members would support each other and develop a winning mind-set. Core beliefs and core values were formed as the foundation of this environment, and standards of excellence, or what was also called “problem management skills” were defined in simplistic, understandable terms to standardize all team members, staff and youth alike, in working their program.

There are distinct advantages to the team. Whereas the youth on a large unit is somewhat on their own except for friendships they make, the team cultivates acceptance and empowerment for everyone on the team. The following is taken from the team handbook on which every youth and staff at Provo Canyon School are trained:

The Advantage of a Team : A team has more power than one person when they work together because they can help each other. On the team, every player is of equal importance and every team member plays an important role. A team that works together can be a successful team, as can every member on the team.

•  Dare to Care : I will dare to care about others on my team. I will let go of my individual pride, biases, and hatred, and have pride in my team. I will get to know my teammates and staff. I will not think that I am any better or more important than anyone else on my team.

•  Make the Effort : I will work on my own weaknesses, instead of blaming, faultfinding, and denying. I will not be afraid to try, and learn to believe in myself. Give my best effort and let other teammates help me.

•  Live by Team Values : I will learn to live by team values and rules. I will be willing to take coaching from my team coaches and teammates. I will be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

•  Give Service to the Team : I will help others on the team; that is the secret to my personal success. Helping others makes me a better person, and it helps me rise above my own problems. Instead of sitting in self-pity and discouragement, I will do something positive to help my team.

“That soul may last, but never lives,
Who much receives, but nothing gives;
Whom none can love, whom none can thank,
Creation's blot, creations blank.”
- Thomas Gibbons

Who's On My Team ?

Team mates : My team mates are not so much different than me. I am just as important as anyone else on the team. My teammates are here to improve their skills, just like me. My teammates can help me, and I can help them. I will show care and concern for myself and my teammates.

Team Coaches : My team has assigned staff that serves as my coach. I will have at least two coaches. Each works a different shift, but they each are there to help me learn needed skills. I will get to know and trust my coaches.

Team Therapist : Each member of my team has the same therapist. My therapist is a licensed and trained person, skilled in helping me resolve personal problems. My therapist has the following jobs:

•  To help prepare my treatment plan and goals.

•  To help me understand your plan and goals.

•  To meet with me individually on a regular basis.

•  To have telephone calls with me and my parent(s) and family.

•  To arrange for special groups for me to attend.

•  To review my progress on a regular basis and keep me informed.

•  To help me with mail, visits with my family, and other things.

•  To provide my parent(s) with progress reports.

•  To track my advancements and help me with transition and discharge planning.

What Does My Team Do ?

Team Groups : At least once a week, my team therapist calls a team group where all members come together to learn about core values and behaviour management skills. This is a time for plans and my me to share openly with my team what I am working on, the successes and failures that I have had, and commitments for the future.

Team Meetings : My team coach will hold daily team meetings. These meetings help us set goals, make commitments, and make individual and team progress.

Daily Practice : Each and every day, I will practice my values and skills as I work, play, and study with my team mates. Practice helps us become better at our skills and values. Practice makes perfect.

Team Activities : My team will have regular team activities. This can be just with my team, or it can be games with another team. It may include sports (basketball, softball, soccer, volleyball, etc), adventure, socials, learning, and service. Activities build team spirit and friendship. My personal behaviour will determine if I can participate in these activities with my team.

Team Chores : I am expected to take an active part in keeping my team area and bedroom, clean, neat, and orderly. I will be given assignments to fulfil. How I fulfil my assignments will either helps or hurt my team, and will determine my privileges.

The team concept allows for youth at Provo Canyon School to have more consistent and fulfilling staff interaction and guidance. It unifies the entire treatment team to a set of core beliefs and values that promotes positive internal change, and holds them accountable to standardized treatment objectives and outcomes. Lastly, it empowers the team to live by more lasting principles of care and concern and service, rather than mere obedience to a set of rules.

Provo Canyon School has one of the finest Recreational Therapy (R.T.) programs for an adolescent residential treatment center in the United States of America. Fully licensed, trained, and skilled recreation therapists work directly with teams of youth and direct-care staff to provide powerful experiential treatment. Recreation therapists do work with individuals, with groups of teams, and with families when they visit Provo Canyon School. Recreation therapy includes a vast array of recreational and fun activities that are therapeutic in purpose. In other words, they aren't just done to entertain or have diversionary fun, but to establish insights to emotional and behavioral problems, and to empower positive growth. Such activities at Provo Canyon School include high task on the ropes course, low tasks, games, primitive skills, rock climbing, rappelling, hiking, skiing, rafting, and camping. Some last for one hour, others can last for several days.

Many Provo Canyon School programs do recreation therapy as a stand-alone experience, instead of an integrated therapeutic tool. However, at Provo Canyon School, R.T. is viewed as part of a team concept, and actively integrates therapists, coaches, and students who are part of a team. Significant empowerment comes from these activities. Youth that come for care to Provo Canyon School are, by nature, active and aggressive, and being outside doing something adventurous or active usually brings a deeper involvement and greater insights. Some of the most powerful therapy is done on the trail or in camp or while participating in a stimulating or challenging experience. This article addresses experiences that often come from R.T. at Provo Canyon School.

While studying about geology at Provo Canyon School, a recreational therapist, a school teacher, and a therapist join together in taking a class of students on a hike in the Utah desert where they find geodes. Geodes (Greek geoides , "earthlike") are geological rock formations which occur in sedimentary and certain volcanic rocks. Geodes are essentially rock cavities or vugs with internal crystal formations or concentric banding. The exterior of the most common geodes is generally limestone or a related rock, while the interior contains quartz crystals and/or chalcedony deposits. Other geodes are completely filled with crystal, being solid all the way through. These types of geodes are called nodules.

The group finds a geode that is plain colored and quite ugly on the outside, but the inside is filled with beautiful purple Amethyst crystals. The Provo Canyon School therapists bring the boys together in a process group and ask them to describe how the geode is like themselves. The discussion carries that they can often feel or appear unattractive on the outside, but the inside, where they keep their deepest feelings hidden, can be quite beautiful. They learn to judge the inside of a person, instead of the outside. They learn how drug abuse, misbehavior, discouragement, depression, and other problems can make them appear dangerous or ugly on the outside, and cover the beautiful or attractive attributes that lie inside. Individual youth can begin to identify the things that are inwardly good and even great about them, and why they seem to try to keep those attributes hidden. Members of the Provo Canyon School group share the inner nice qualities that they see in each other, and this builds individual self-esteem, as well as team unity and trust. This opens up all kinds of discussions in individual and family therapy.

The Provo Canyon School group also finds desert marbles. These are dark, rust-colored, round stone-like objects that are actually formed out of desert sand. Sand contains the mineral “iron”, which gives it a reddish color. When water and iron mix, they form a compound called “iron oxide” that is hard and metal-like. Yet, inside the hard shell, they find softer sandstone that they can scrap out with a stick or even their fingernail. Again, the R.T. member of the Provo Canyon School group leads the boys in a discussion about life and hidden pain. They begin to see how, like the desert marble, they have begun to build up a hard, resistive shell around their softer inner feelings. The boys begin to see that just as the red iron mineral in the soft sand bled out and combined with oxygen and water to form a hard, protective shell, so have their painful experiences in life caused their need for love, acceptance, guidance, and achievement to bleed and combine with other things to form dangerous and self-destructive behaviors. This discussion brings insights to some of the events in their lives that have caused pain, discouragement, and hopelessness. For those boys who are recovering from drug abuse or another addiction, they can begin to see how the addiction has built a shell around them. Again, this opens the boys up to sharing some of their challenges, and helps them see that they still have a soft inner part that is good. This has the potential to restore hope and vision. It also helps them bond together as a team when they are back at Provo Canyon School.

Last of all, the Provo Canyon School group finds a piece of petrified wood. The teacher explains the process of petrification to the boys while they pass the piece of rock around and look closely at its molecular structure. The Provo Canyon School teacher explains that the wood was covered by volcanic ash some thousands of years ago. So covered, the wood underwent the influences of pressure and heat and water action. Water seeped down into the wood over time and slowly replaced each wood molecule with mineral (rock) molecules. The transfer was so precise that the image of the wood was completely preserved, right down to its bark, texture, grain, and growth rings. The Provo Canyon School teacher explains that over time, with heat, pressure, and water, a soft, pliable, usable piece of wood was turned into stone. The Provo Canyon School therapist asks the boys to think about if there is such a thing as human petrification. He asks them to identify the forces in their lives that have caused heat, pressure, and stress, and perhaps began to harden them. This may include drugs, lying, abuse, dishonesty, hopelessness, discouragement, and other things. They begin to see that if they continue this process over time, they may become like rocks, having only the image of a human being. They begin to identify those attributes that real men and women have that make them soft and useful to others around them.

These and other experiences like them can be powerful influences for insight and change in youth. They far outstrip the traditional couch therapy and normal classroom instruction to which they are necessarily subjected while back at Provo Canyon School. These types of experiences should be written down in a growth or change journal, and discussed in individual and family therapy sessions. It is crucial that the Provo Canyon School primary therapist, recreation therapists, and other direct care staff, including coaches and teachers (when it is appropriate) participate with the boys and girls in this type of experiential therapy, so that they can experience and process with the youth these precious growth moments.

Recreation therapy plays a specific and important role at Provo Canyon School. It is not just something Provo Canyon School staff use to entertain youthful clients and their parents. It is a significant part of the integrated plan of care that empowers a youth to make true growth in recognizing, committing, and actually making needed changes in his or her life.

Provo Canyon ADD/ADHD Treatment

•  About 5% of the world population suffers from ADD/ADHD. The first signs of the condition can be noticed during childhood.

•  An exclusive treatment plan for boys aged between 12 and 14 has been made. Most of the children of this age suffer from ADD/ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder / Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

•  This independent program emphasizes on individual attention. Resultantly, the staff: student ratio is almost at par with each other.

•  Majority of the boys in the program are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.

•  It is natural for children to be active and non-attentive till a certain age. Poor memory, low impulses, distractive nature, is common to children.

•  But when the behavior persists after a certain age, say till the age of about nine, then a diagnosis can be made.

•  No television. No music. No Movies. No fashionable or trendy clothes. The distractions of the outside world are not allowed at the school.

•  Self-dependence gets much encouragement. The teachers and the staff are at hand when any assistance or support is required.

•  A variety of activities are arranged as part of the recreation therapy of the school. Sports and arts are prominent features of the therapy.

•  Indoor activities include forming a problem solvers group and cooperation building groups that help in the healing process.

•  Adventure therapy is also part of the program. Adventure therapy is part of another school program called the TWW or Theory Without Walls.

•  The TWW program includes ten trips to Northern Utah for duration of two days each. The school organizes six trips to Southern Utah of five days duration each.

•  Eight students are part of a trip with two trip supervisors. These supervisors may be recreational therapists.

•  The students may usually find at least one area of interest to keep them busy and specialize in.

•  The recreational activities are arranged within the campus and outside it. The activities outside the school campus include skiing (downhill and cross-country), snowboarding, hiking, canoeing, fishing, rappelling, rock-climbing and snow sculpture making. All snow related sports are held at the Sundance Resort, located nearby.

•  Although the events may seem recreational, the purpose is not merely so. Sport could be a healing factor in therapeutic healing. Playing a sport improves teamwork, facilitates communication, and keeps the body active.

•  On an average, a Provo Canyon student could be part of an outside campus activity, a couple of recreation therapy groups, and a campus activity.

•  Family therapies are a weekly affair. These are part of the telephone conversations. The therapist and the child are also present at the call.

•  The art class is another outlet for the students to showcase their talent. Apart from drawing, oil painting and sketching, clay modeling and ceramics are also part of the class.

•  For more information on the school, visit the website www.provo-canyon-school.com. You can request for more information by filling an online form.

•  Another option is to send an email at info@provocanyonschool.org