AP investigation: Adopted kids confined in for-profit institutions

[0:00] I think in a way they wanted to hear that somebody could fix me. [0:06] When I saw someone be restrained for the first time, I was like, this doesn't seem right. [0:11] Like even when I was at the mental hospital, kids weren't being restrained for nothing. [0:16] They definitely educated the parents on the adopted child. [0:23] Residential treatment centers offer hope for parents and children who are struggling at home [0:27] or school. Unlike juvenile detention centers, they operate with little government oversight. [0:32] Several of these facilities have come under fire or closed in recent years. [0:36] A famous reality TV star is calling for reforms in the way young people... [0:40] I know firsthand the horrors that happen behind the closed doors of youth residential treatment facilities. [0:46] Despite some reforms, the so-called troubled teen industry continues to thrive, [0:51] with thousands of kids in residential programs, including adoptees who are vastly overrepresented. [0:57] They account for 2% of American children. [0:59] Yet researchers estimate adopted kids make up 25 to 40% of those in residential treatment. [1:07] Questions about my birth mother. [1:09] What was my name going to be? [1:11] How many siblings do I have? [1:13] I'm 22 years old and I spent ages 12 to 15 and then 16 to 18 in program. [1:22] So I was adopted at birth. [1:25] I really struggled mentally from a young age, like with depression and anxiety. [1:30] ADHD, they said. It probably started to escalate when I was about 8 or 9 years old. [1:36] And then by the time I was 11, my mom was looking for places. [1:39] An Associated Press investigation looked at why so many adoptees end up in these treatment centers. [1:45] Some describe the industry as a shadow orphanage system. [1:48] The AP found that many adoptee residents have been diagnosed or suspected of having something called [1:52] reactive attachment disorder. [1:54] Reactive attachment disorder, or RAD, is a psychiatric condition where a child, [2:00] under moments of stress, sadness, fear, they do not seek proximity to or comfort from a caregiver. [2:07] Because of the history of the field and the last 50 years of how this has evolved, [2:12] we wind up having all these children diagnosed with RAD who don't actually, [2:17] they're not anywhere close to the diagnostic criteria for that condition. [2:21] Usually it has to be diagnosed in the first five years of age. [2:24] I had a therapist tell me that she thought I had reactive attachment disorder. [2:29] Kate ended up in four different programs. [2:31] She says she was sexually assaulted at the first one. [2:34] The AP generally does not identify people who say they've been sexually assaulted, [2:38] but agreed to use Kate's first name at her request. [2:40] She says she was physically restrained at another program, Uinta Academy in Utah. [2:45] I was 13, freshly. The staff come running down and instantly put me, like, throw me face first into [2:53] a hold and are yelling that I'm OIC, OIC, which is out of instructional control. [2:59] I was telling them, like, I couldn't breathe because they were pushing on my chest. [3:02] Like, they were holding me down. [3:04] Uinta did not respond to requests for comment, but its parent company said its programs are [3:08] independently operated. It added that program practices continue to develop over time, [3:14] informed by evolving clinical guidance, regulatory expectations, and ongoing input from families [3:19] and participants. [3:20] This is not all residential treatment facilities, and there are very good ones out there. [3:24] But the ones that do these types of rad treatments, when they get into those power-assertive, [3:31] prison-like conditions that some of them like to do, those are things that not only are not [3:36] scientifically valid, they're ethically questionable, if not outright ethically indefensible. [3:42] This is a mess. Oh, it's this one. So, I was born in China, and I was adopted at 22 months. [3:55] I struggled a lot with, like, anxiety and depression, and then that led to me self-harming, [4:01] starting at, like, 12 years old, I think, and it just kind of spiraled from there. I had to go on [4:06] through, like, a lot of therapy, and I did partial hospitalization, and I did some inpatient, [4:12] but I think it was a few weeks before I was 17, something just kind of snapped, and my parents [4:16] decided that they needed to send me to residential. [4:19] With my research, I felt like this would be the best, most nurturing, most helpful [4:26] next step for us, and I really thought, you know, that it was it, that this is what was going to help, [4:33] finally. [4:33] The AP found more than 80 private facilities that specifically advertise that they treat [4:38] adoption-related issues. [4:39] Often, what sweeps in is this overpromise, a very seductive promise from residential treatment centers [4:48] and the people recommending them, people like educational consultants, saying, well, let's contain. [4:55] You can separate the adoptee and keep them safe, and promising that adoption-related issues will be addressed. [5:04] I saw that it was for adoptees only, and I thought it would be a place where a lot of kids would [5:12] understand that perspective. [5:13] Zoe Alvarez spent nine months at Three Points Center in Utah. Not long after she left in 2022, [5:19] the state opened an investigation looking into allegations of cruel and unnecessary punishment. [5:24] The facility closed last year and filed for bankruptcy. The AP reached out to its founder, [5:28] who declined to comment. He's since moved on to another program that says it treats adoption issues [5:33] in young adults. [5:34] Looking back now, four and a half years later, since she's been home, I would never send her back there. [5:42] Being there was traumatizing for her. You know, if she had low self-worth, they made her feel lower. [5:50] My depression really took the forefront after I left, because you're not in that mind control, [5:56] warped sense of self, like you're actually in the real world, right? And you're doing real world [6:03] things and trying to navigate it, but you have no idea how, because you've been in these kinds of [6:08] programs that are telling you exactly how to feel, exactly what to wear, exactly what to do. [6:13] I just wish that these kids would get actual help, because if they are struggling, like I want them [6:20] to feel better. I want them to, you know, feel like they fit in.