Episode 12: A National Trend

The fight has just begun. This final episode shares the work that Paris, the hosts, and her organization have accomplished in Utah alongside state Senator Mike McKell as they plan to expand this movement to states nationwide.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The following episode contains disturbing and graphic accounts of survivor experiences.
It may not be suitable for younger audiences. Please listen
with care. When we're in Provo, we listen to the
neighbors who describe the warning signs they see from the outside,
if the kids trying to get away, the extreme behaviors
of these kids who are clearly in in fear and uh,

(00:24):
you know it's cold, They're like, why unless it's really
bad inside, why why run away in the winter's time
when it's cold and you don't know where you're going.
These kids are forced into desperate situations because it's a
it's a desperate situation and provo um is a problem,
and provo needs to stop. And when it does, it's

(00:44):
not the only one. I mean, it's just it's replicated,
and it's it's replicated by their UHS programs, it's replicated
by sequel programs, it's replicated by a Kadia programs, and
they're all going to turn into some other name sometime soon.
And what we really need to get at is get
the kids out that are in immediate danger and really
improve the regulation. From I Heart Radio London Audio and

(01:11):
executive producer Paris Hilton. This is Trapped in Treatment. We're
your host's Rebecca Mellinger and I'm Caroline Cole, one Troubled
Team industry survivor and one investigator on a mission to
expose the truth of an industry plagued by controversy and
to make sure that no child has to experience the
hell that is Team Treatment. Wow, I cannot believe we

(01:55):
have reached the last episode of season one. We have
spent the last few weeks tearing apart pro Volcanian School.
But to be honest, there's so much more to this
industry than just PCs. The Trouble Team industry expans the
country and the world. After we saw PCs come to

(02:16):
its rise within the seventies and eighties, there was a
really interesting phenomenon that happened. Staff at PCs ended up
spinning off and creating their own facilities their own programs,
and the same thing happened at those facilities. The people
who worked there went to open their own facilities in

(02:38):
different states and across the country. So this is kind
of that web that all started with pro Vocatian School,
and it's actually very personal to you. Caroline right, Because
didn't the founder of your facility actually get his start
at pro Volcanian School. He did. He was a dorm
dad at pro Vocanian School back in the eighties, and

(03:00):
I believe he was actually described as being humorless in
Dictatorial Boy. Good traits does not sound like someone who's
maybe the warmest person in the world. And that's why
we spend so much time focusing on pro Volcanian School.
It is because it really really is that germ that

(03:20):
spurred the industry. So when we go back and we
talk about the practices in the seventies and the eighties
and shock therapy and all those various practices, that is
the impetus for the rest of what these youth have
experienced all the way up to today, whether they're at
pro Vocanian School or they're at other facilities across the
nation and across the world, exactly. And so it's it

(03:43):
almost becomes just like an echo of pro Vocanian School.
We see the same exact treatment models, we see the
same exact practices, the same types of staff members and
their dynamics with the residents there. It's all just a
complete imprint of Provo you know, and all of this
really goes to show exactly what Senator Gelser said at

(04:03):
the top of the episode, and we are so lucky
to have legislators who understand this dynamic and are starting
to really fight and raise greater attention to this issue
so that we can actually save the children. Throughout this journey,
we've had the pleasure of working with some powerful, important
leaders who are fighting right alongside us. One of those
people is Senator Mike mckel, a Utah State senator who

(04:26):
joined us during the fight in Utah, but it's also
taken on. This cause is really personal one. He can
see the change as it happens or not across the country,
so we're super grateful to be able to sit down
with him. We asked him whether the movement in Utah
has made a national impact at a legislative level and
what other states are doing to address the oversight of

(04:46):
their own treatment facilities pigs. The urge to change is
growing and in a large part of that is the
work that you guys are doing. A break and coat silence,
there is no question, um, we got some work to do.
An Idaho, though, my neighbor to the north that there's
been a lot of problems up there that we really
need to need to watch. But I think there is

(05:07):
an appetite for change. I think there is a feeling
of change in the air. I think, I mean, you
guys are you guys are seeing it. I've followed what
you're doing. There are a lot of states that want
to see some strong, strong change. I mean, it was
it was fun in Utah. Um, I got to work here.
I'm the Republican working with the Democrat from Orion was

(05:30):
was Senator Gelser. Um. This is an issue that is
not this is not an issutive partisan. This is something
that we we really owe it to our kids to
make sure they're safe in these private, private facilities. So
I appreciate what you're doing it. I mean, it feels
like there's a strong effort to make changes across the country.

(05:50):
So what are the things that the other states are
actually addressing currently? Are they the exact same as Utah's
issues or are they different? I think a lot of
the issues are the same. I mean more than anything,
I think I think the states that I've talked to
want to see more more oversight. And I think there's
been there's been a real lack lack of oversight. And

(06:12):
I think our model that we used here as a
model that could be used could be used anywhere. I
certainly don't think we're done. I think there's other issues
that we still should explore. But more than anything, UM,
we need just better oversight. So what are the additional
reforms in Utah that are still needed? I think we
need to spend I've got a list of things that

(06:35):
I know we talked about. First of all, effectiveness of treatment.
Parents need. There needs to be credibility with the treatment
that's provided. And parents need to be confident that when
they send their child to Idaho or Nevada or Utah
that the treatment they're providing is based on peer reviewed
best practices. And and and I don't know that that

(06:56):
doesn't happen in some facilities. I know it doesn't happen
in some facilities, but I think there's a gap in information.
These are private facilities. Reporting is is still fairly light
on the type of treatment is provided that is not
the case in public facilities. And I think that could
be a model. The other issue that that I struggle with,

(07:17):
and I probably struggle and I bring this up, I
was probably struggled with the most is length of stay.
I fundamentally I worry that kids are in programs way
too long. With kid when Caroline came to Utah and
spoke in her hearing, and she was she was just
a teenager and she was put in a facility because
her mom and dad were going through divorce. And that's

(07:37):
a kid that mrs prom mrs homecoming, mrs. Interaction with
with friends and and really grows up in an institution
And to me, tying that to treatment is just not
seem helpful. Another issue that that really bothers me, and
until we come up with a good solution, I think

(07:58):
it will always bother me is how we how we
transport kids. Um. I had one one professor, one of
the researchers. He says to me, it almost feels like
a human rights violation picking up kids in the middle
of the night. When you start the mental health professionals
that I've talked to, when you start treatment with trauma,

(08:21):
it almost entirely defeats the purpose. We traumatize kids right
out of the shoe before we treat them. And I
am extremely concerned that we need we need to do
more there. I am extremely concerned with what I've seen
in probo Canyon in the past, and you know, we
have a new legislation. We've got to we've got to

(08:42):
look at when that was implemented in moving forward. If
we continue, I will say this, if we continue to
see similar violations, they should be shut down. If they
chemically restrained kids, if they seclude kids, they should be
shut down. Uh. That is something that we should have
zero tolerance for. It is abuse, and UH, we we're
gonna do better and moving forward. I appreciate all the

(09:04):
work you guys done. I mean it was it was
really helpful. We had a very aggressive bill that without
all of the public awareness, without the attention, without Paris Hill,
would have been very very difficult. Um, you and I
had this conversation. I was nervous when Paris came came
to Utah. I knew it would create it would be
a very unique and unique challenge making sure that things

(09:27):
things went well and the committee hearing. Um. We we
had threats against our capital. We had we had the
Black Lives Matter, we had the pro Trumpers, the anti Trumpers.
Every capital in America was pretty was pretty locked down
with security concerns because of because of the current climate.
But in the end, I think we had a very

(09:48):
very positive, positive experience for change. And uh, I think
I think your your organizations breaking silence brought so much
attention to the to the issue, and I think it
was I was helpful. You know. It's sad that it
happened in my state. We we do so many things
so well in Utah. This is just one that we

(10:10):
we certainly have missed the mark on and I hope
we don't moving forward, we need to be better and
if that means what we continue to look at Probo
Canyon and we continue to question their practices Soviet and
and I will be there right there with you guys
every stuff the way on that. Rebecca, do you remember

(10:44):
when we first started talking to Senator Mike McKell I do.
He had actually reached out to us right after the
rally when Paris and I were headed back to Los Angeles,
and he said that he had had a personal relationship
to this industry and that he was interested did in
you know, attacking this within the legislature. But I remember
our first conversation with him. It was so interesting and

(11:07):
he's actually really a perfect case study because our very
first conversation his attitude was like, well, we're going to
make sure that these places are safe and we're going
to do what's practical, and he was very kind of
middle ground totally. But then what did you see happen
over the course of the campaign and and working this bill. Well,

(11:29):
you know, we introduced him to survivors and he started
to really better understand what these kids are going through
in the facilities, and all of a sudden, he got angry.
He got so fiery angry, kind of like what you
said in an earlier episode actually, and he just really
took this on as a really really personal cause. And

(11:49):
it's it really is that transformation for people that don't
know about this industry. It's, wow, this is really terrible.
It doesn't affect me yet, so yes, we should do
so thing about it, but I don't necessarily know how.
And then when you start to really hear the stories,
you can't stop. And what was fascinating to me is

(12:11):
seeing not only how Paris on a larger scale put
this topic in front of the nation, but even Senator
mckel in his home state of Utah. Once he started
talking about this issue, he started having even his family
physician reach out and say that they were affected. He
started having friends reach out and discussing their stories, and

(12:33):
then we even saw lawmakers within the Senate and the
House in Utah who all of a sudden they felt
like they had permission to talk about how their families
and their personal lives were also affected by this industry.
And so we saw him just become alive with this passion,
which feels so good as someone who has had this

(12:54):
lived experience. And I just feel like it's this perfect
storm because with Senator Michel who really took on this issue,
and without the national attention that Paris brought to it,
without the advocates and all of the survivors who are
willing to share their story, we wouldn't have had that
roundtable discussion during that committee hearing that we had in
Utah back in February to be able to create that

(13:17):
impetus for actual legislative change. So you have to have
every single piece of the puzzle to actually make something happen. Absolutely,
and in saying that, I just also want to give
a nod to all of the survivors who have been
in the advocacy space for decades, because I think all
too often, you know, we've reached this pinnacle where yes,

(13:38):
a lot of changes happening, but it's been twenty something
years that have led up to this, with advocates who
have been showing up at their state capitals, who have
been lobbying their local legislators, and for a number of
years it felt like they were just screaming into a void.
So now we're finally gaining that traction. But there's still

(14:01):
a lot of work to do. Absolutely, I mean, we
have come a really long way over the past year,
but it's dangerous to be too optimistic because we know
that the abuse is still happening today at Provocainian School
and at other facilities across the nation. In one and
you know, when we premiered this is Paris PCs came
out with this absurd statement saying that they couldn't comment

(14:24):
on operations prior to two thousand because that was when
it changed ownership to Universal Health Services. But Senator Girls
are blue in with skeptical, so she did a record's
request just recently. You know, I think in the case
of Provocaion, we had had Oregon had two kids that
were Provocaion in and when Paris Hilton Um had her

(14:47):
documentary and and talked about the abuse that she experienced
at Provocationian School, including seclusion. Um. Provocatian said, you know,
we can't speak to that. That was a different owner.
We don't do those things anymore. We prohibited those things
a long time ago. Well, it's interesting was I was
so focused on Sequel Youth and Family Services and a Kadia,

(15:08):
which is another large provider that had a number of
our kids, that I hadn't done the records requests for
Provocanian School, partly because the kids came home almost immediately
after I started having the hearings. So I did these records,
and it was clear that within eighteen months of the
time that Provocanion was saying we haven't done this in years,
that was prior owners that they were um chemically restraining

(15:32):
a little girl with intellectual disabilities. They were putting her
in seclusion, they were putting her in multiple restraints. She
was being assaulted by other children, um, you know, to
the point that she couldn't eat. She actually said to
her case manager, I'm going to die here. I think
I'm going to die here. I would run away, but
there's just walls and walls and walls I can't get out.
I can't, I can't get away. That's now and if

(15:55):
we hadn't done that public records request again, there is
no way to get in there and see what is
really and see what's really happening. And so what we
need are more survivors like Paris, like this little girl
named Uvea that I believe you've met, Uvea who was
nine when she was in an A Kadia facility in
Montana and keeps telling her story. UM. We need the

(16:17):
types of public records that we are able to get
in some states through these records requests, and we need
to be partnering with disability rights organizations. Every state has
a protection and advocacy center that has the outright ability
to go into a program, look at their records, look
at the treatment plans for UM kids, period and that
is the only way we are going to get to

(16:39):
the bottom of it and to keep talking about it.

(17:05):
The most recent case we've heard about, Tricia's nephew James,
the twelve year olds in Away just earlier this year,
is another perfect example. Tricia's words haunt us and clearly
showed that not enough has changed. No more gas lighting,
no more lies. I told the social worker. I said,
Provocanian boarding school, like and I was like, why does

(17:27):
that name sound familiar? And she was like, I don't know,
you know. And I said, like, wait a minute, wasn't
there just like some sort of like protest down there,
like wait, no, no, no, no, I know what this is.
This is that school. I've heard this school. And she's all,
you know, Paris Hilton, Da da da, you know. She

(17:48):
kind of like mumbled it and try to like smooth
past it really fast. And I said, yeah, the one
with Paris Hilton and all those people. Yeah, And she
said and oh, that was a long time ago. You know,
they sold, they try, they changed now owners, blah blah blah.
It's not like that anymore. You know, Paris Hilton's you know,

(18:11):
around your age, which I don't know she is my
age all the way or not, but you know, that
was back in the nineties. That was this that And
I'm like, I was like, you know, it wasn't just
Paris Hilton. This is like the r. Kelly situation where
you can't say they're all liars. They don't all lie,

(18:31):
you know, and oh, you can't believe everything you hear
in the media. And I'm just like, you know, in
in all fair honesty, there could be like one person
who embellished, you know, let's just say there was one.
But there's not a hundred. There's not two hundred, there's
not three hundred, there's not a thousand. There's not tens

(18:57):
and thousands of documents of different people from different countries,
from different places who are saying the same thing over
and over, begging for someone to shut these places down.
They're not all lying, that's impossible. These kids have been

(19:23):
trying for decades to tell us and and the issues
are the same over and over and over and and
over again. And the cost um, you know, I was
talking with a colleague in Utah who said, you know,
maybe there is some magical place out there that does
good work, But with all of the trauma and damage

(19:46):
that we've seen, how much good work would there have
to be to make up for all of the destruction
that that this is causing for for families that last
for for decades, different people, different countries, even all with
the same abusive treatment story. The unfortunate truth is that

(20:09):
while some of their practices may have changed since the
a C l U in junction, it's clear that many
of them, specifically isolation, manipulation, physical restraint in the impenetrable
wall of silence, are still being used at pro Vocanion today.
The stories are still coming. This school is an abomination,

(20:32):
a single part of a much larger industry that has
spread its philosophies around the world. And I don't mean
to harp on this one statement that Provocanian School made,
but I really do feel that it is so important
because it is so incredibly lazy on behalf of UHS
and pro Volcanian School. So when they said that they

(20:52):
can't comment on anything prior to two thousand, that is
completely discrediting the thousands of survivors that we have heard
from who were at Provo Canyon School from two thousand
all the way to Provocanian School can't hide behind that
media statement anymore. When the documentary came out, they put
out this media statement dated September seventy and they said

(21:16):
that they provided every patient with a survey upon discharge,
and this survey was over eight hundred and forty one
discharge patients and it says, according to the Patients Satisfaction Survey,
a hundred percent of patients report that they feel better
at discharge than when admitted, and a hundred percent of

(21:36):
patients report that they were satisfied with their treatment. A
hundred percent probably felt better because they were leaving pro
Volcanian School. That's totally I mean, yeah, they want to
get out of there, so they're going to write whatever
they can on that survey. I mean, we've heard from
survivors in this season from from so it's just not possible.

(22:00):
Will that a hundred of their clients are saying that
they had a supported, successful treatment at pro Volcanian School.
And one other thing that I just want to note
from this media statement is something that they said towards
the bottom, and it says we're concerned that the current
media coverage may increase the stigma around seeking help for

(22:21):
behavioral health concerns. Caroline, I would really love your thoughts
on that statement. We don't believe that this increases a
stigma around seeking help. In fact, we believe that this
movement requires us to have a more definitive understanding of

(22:41):
what is help, what is treatment, what is therapeutic, and
what does that mean when we look at someone's behavior
compared to true mental health treatment. Behavioral health is only
an outward expression of what's happening inside. So, as we've
seen throughout this entire season, when we have facilities like

(23:05):
pro Volcanian School that are simply aimed at modifying the behaviors,
we are in no way getting close to even treating
that individual on the inside and giving them what they
need so they can be happy, well rounded, so they
can have success, and so that they can have nurturing,

(23:26):
fulfilling relationships with their families. And that statement, to me
just feels like they're glossing over it all. All they
want is to continue to fill those beds instead of
focusing on why are these survivors coming out more traumatized
than when they came in. How can we actually do
better within our practice to provide the care that we

(23:46):
say we do. Pro Vocanian School, we call for the
shuttering of your doors, the closing of your facilities, and
the release of the youth within your walls. Pro Volcanian School,
you should be shut down in the day's coming. Your
abusive practices and archaic therapy models should be illegal, and

(24:07):
we won't stop. You can't brush us off or save
face with marketing tactics and false promises. We are your
worst nightmare, the voices of the youth you have wronged.
This season was just the beginning. We're just getting started.
Thanks for listening, and see you next time. Untrapped in

(24:28):
Treatment You've been listening to Trapped in Treatment from I
Heeart Media, London Audio and Warner Brothers Digital. Unscripted in
association with Telepictures, Written, produced and edited by Christina Hanna

(24:52):
to executive produced by Paris Hilton, Bruce Gersh and Bruce Robertson,
Stephanie Schwartz, a supervising producer, Music supervision and mixing by
Richard Joy, fact checking and research by Chelsea Maldonado, Rebecca
Mellinger and Caroline Cole. Hosted by Rebecca Mellinger and Caroline Cole.
Special thanks to Bob Muehler, Senior Vice President of Digital

(25:15):
Media at Warner Brothers, and to all the guests who
share their stories and their perspectives with us. We are
so grateful to everyone raising their voices alongside us to
bring awareness to this issue. Thank you,