196. EXPOSING the Troubled Teen Industry: How it Scams Parents & Harms Teens feat. Maia Szalavitz

She Persisted: Your Teen Mental Health Resource

#196 Today's guest is Maia Szalavitz— an award-winning author and journalist. She first advocated against the Troubled Teen Industry in her 2006 book, Help at Any Cost, and has since written several New York Times articles and appeared in the 2024 Netflix documentary, The Program, to discuss this dangerous industry further. In this episode, we discuss:

+ The history of the troubled-teen industry & what it looks like today

+ What proper mental health care for teenagers should look like

+ Why teens with substance abuse or behavioral issues can't succeed in troubled teen programs

+ My personal troubled-teen industry experience

+ The real reasons why parents are sending their kids away to treatment programs

+ The dangerous accountability model behind many troubled teen programs

+ The unethical ways that troubled-teen programs earn massive profits

+ The trauma that troubled teen survivors face due to these programs

+ Regulations that could eliminate these programs for good

MENTIONED

+ The Program

+ Help at Any Cost

+ New York Times article

+ Trails Carolina article

+ Maia's Website

+ Unsilenced

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