Despite closures since 2019, CCHR says the troubled teen industry still endangers kids’ lives, and tougher bans and oversight of both facilities and the youth transport system are needed to ensure no child dies for profit.
By CCHR International
The Mental Health Industry Watchdog
July 3, 2025
Public awareness about the risks faced by children in so-called “troubled teen” facilities—including wilderness “therapy” camps—has grown in recent years, leading to necessary closures, according to the mental health watchdog Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). The organization credits families, advocates, attorneys, legislators, and persistent media investigations for forcing these abusive facilities to shut down.
These programs, often marketed as therapeutic, have a long record of harm. As author Maia Szalavitz noted in Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, the methods used in these camps would violate the Geneva Convention if applied to prisoners of war.[1]
Last year, Trails Carolina, a wilderness camp in North Carolina, shut down after the restraint death of 12-year-old Clark Harman within 24 hours of admission. Survivors say his death is just the latest example of an industry that brutalizes children in the guise of “therapy.”[2]
Family Help & Wellness LLC (FHW), the parent company of Trails Carolina, has faced multiple closures across its network. Wingate Wilderness Therapy closed in 2023 amid abuse allegations, citing “financial reasons.”[3] In May 2025, after two teenage suicides at its Asheville Academy for Girls (formerly Solstice East), the program closed.[4]
Serious allegations persist at other FHW-run centers. Elevations Residential Treatment Center in Utah reported at least 105 self-harm incidents and 138 uses of physical restraints from May 2023–May 2024. NBC reported a lawsuit where a former student claimed a traumatic brain injury went untreated for six days after staff slammed her to the ground during a restraint; the case was settled. “They need to close their business down,” said survivor Chloe Gilliland, 18.[5]
Another FHW facility, Solstice West RTC in Utah, also faces allegations of physical and emotional abuse. Multiple legal actions have been launched by former residents and families demanding accountability.[6]
This pattern isn’t isolated. Troubled teen facilities and wilderness camps nationwide have faced repeated scandals:
- Red Rock Canyon School, Utah (2019): Police and SWAT intervened when 25 minors were injured; staff were charged with child abuse and the Sequel Youth and Family Services-owned facility closed.[7]
- Two Broadstep Behavioral Health facilities in South Carolina were shut down in 2022 and 2024.[8]
- Ecu Behavioral Health Unit in North Carolina (2023) closed five clinics, and its inpatient behavioral health unit after losing $46 million during the 2022 fiscal year.[9]
- SUWS (School of Urban and Wilderness Survival) of the Carolinas (2023), owned by Acadia Healthcare closed due to “slowing demand” after abuse allegations.[10]
- Evoke Wilderness Camp, Utah (2024) closed after facing negative press about their practices.[11] Its Oregon location closed in 2021.[12]
- Maple Lake Academy, Utah (2024): Closed after a girl died there and the state refused license renewal.[13]
- Three Points Center, Utah (2025): Shut down following repeated violations, including cruel and humiliating punishment.[14]
Many of these programs can charge fees that range from around $30,000–$100,000 annually.[15]
In 2021 in Utah—a hub for these programs—the Salt Lake Tribune uncovered thousands of inspection reports for youth facilities, revealing rampant abuse, sedation, and negligence despite a 2021 law increasing oversight.[16]
Senator Mike McKell, the bill’s sponsor, admitted the state has been “learning the hard way” as preventable deaths continue. His 2025 amendment (SB297) created an ombudsman, whistleblower protections, and required facilities to let kids call for help at any time.[17] The amendment was enacted after hearing testimony from grieving parents who lost children, attorneys, and people who said they have suffered abuses, including celebrity, Paris Hilton,[18] as well as written testimony from CCHR International.
The problem is nationwide. Senator McKell estimated that about 90% of kids in Utah’s treatment centers come from other states.[19] Sky News documented the terrifying practice of the youth “secure transport” industry, where children are forcibly removed from their homes at night, handcuffed, and taken to remote camps—what they called “authorized kidnappings.”[20]
Clark Harman was transported by two men from his home in New York to Trails Carolina, which promised parents “trusted residential mental health programs” for their children, but turned deadly.[21]
In Maryland, the Preventing Abduction in Youth Transport Act (HB 497), introduced by Delegate Vaughn Stewart, outlawed dangerous restraint methods and established legal safeguards. Paris Hilton, other survivors of the troubled teen industry, and CCHR supported the measure.[22]
But while some private equity firms are pulling out of the “troubled teen” industry amid lawsuits, investigations, and bad press,[23] CCHR says closures alone are not enough. Every state should investigate all FHW-run facilities and similar programs, ban the worst offenders, and end the shadowy transport practices that enable them.
Jan Eastgate, president of CCHR International, says the entire troubled teen industry has grown out of the psychiatrizing of normal childhood and adolescent behavior, turning the challenges of growing up into a mental disorder for profit.
Even Allen Frances, the psychiatrist who chaired the task force that updated the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), has admitted this diagnostic inflation. Over the past two decades, ADHD diagnoses alone have tripled. “Human nature just doesn’t change that quickly,” Frances said. “Our kids haven’t suddenly become sicker; it’s just that diagnoses are applied to them more loosely.”[24]
This mass pathologizing has fueled an enormous and lucrative market. In 2024, the global pediatric and adolescent mental health sector was valued at approximately $404 billion.[25] In the U.S. alone, the troubled teen “treatment” industry is worth an estimated $50 billion.[26] Between 2017 and 2021, total medical spending for pediatric mental health conditions jumped by over 45%, with these conditions now accounting for nearly half of all pediatric medical spending. That’s $31 billion in direct costs for children and another $59 billion in household spending[27]—all to prop up a system that often traumatizes the very youth it claims to help.
CCHR warns that this profit-driven system, built on unscientific diagnoses and poorly regulated programs, must be dismantled to protect children. No child’s life should ever be gambled away in the shadows of an unaccountable multi-billion-dollar behavioral-psychiatric industry. “The recent closures are not enough,” Eastgate says. “When abuse and deaths occur, these wilderness camps and troubled teen facilities must be permanently banned. We owe children and families real protection — not empty promises.”
[1] Sam Myers, “Survivors of wilderness therapy camps describe trauma, efforts to end abuses,” Arkansas Advocate, 7 Aug. 2023, https://arkansasadvocate.com/2023/08/07/dark-forest-a-look-inside-controversial-wilderness-therapy-camps/
[2] https://www.cchrint.org/2025/03/20/torture-in-the-troubled-teen-industry-death-by-deliberate-indifference/
[3] Jessica Miller Schreifels, “Nearly half of Utah’s wilderness programs for ‘troubled teens’ closed in the last year. Here’s what’s happening,” The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 May 2024, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/05/07/nearly-half-utahs-wilderness/; “Abuse Allegations at WinGate Wilderness,” Helping Survivors, 24 June 2025, https://helpingsurvivors.org/wilderness-therapy/wingate-wilderness-abuse/; https://neurolaunch.com/wingate-wilderness-therapy-closing/; “’They ruined my life’: Inside America’s harrowing ‘wilderness therapy’ camps for ‘troubled teens’ where over a dozen kids have DIED and survivors are left traumatized from ‘torturous abuse in filthy, freezing conditions,’” Daily Mail, 25 Feb. 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13110721/troubled-teen-camps-wilderness-therapy-death-abuse.html
[4] Andrew R. Jones, “Asheville Academy, Trails Carolina owner faced financial upheaval before deaths” Asheville Watchdog, 11 June 2025, https://avlwatchdog.org/asheville-academy-trails-carolina-owner-faced-financial-upheaval-before-deaths/
[5] https://kidsoverprofits.org/lawsuits/; Tyler Kingkade, Elizabeth Chuck, “Former students report injuries and isolation at Utah facility for troubled teens,” NBC News, 2 Sept. 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/utah-elevations-rtc-injuries-troubled-teen-facility-rcna159783
[6] https://psychologycharts.com/solstice-west-rtc-abuse-unveiling-the-allegations-and-seeking-justice/
[7] Francisco Kjolset, “Troubled teen industry facilities in Utah had lax oversight. Investigative reporters uncovered rampant abuse,” Salt Lake Tribune, 14 Dec. 2022, https://businessjournalism.org/2022/12/sent-away/; Lauren Dake, “Utah Facility Housing Oregon Foster Youth To Close After Reports Of Abuse,” OPB, 11 July 2019, https://www.opb.org/news/article/utah-red-rock-canyon-school-closing-oregon-foster-care/
[8] Anna Arinder, “Fight at Upstate psychiatric facility accelerates closure,” FOX Carolina, 15 Apr. 2024, https://www.foxcarolina.com/2024/04/15/fight-upstate-psychiatric-facility-accelerates-closure/; Rey Llerena, “Georgetown revokes child behavioral health center’s license citing ‘public nuisance,’” Live 5 New WCSC, 21 July 2022, https://www.live5news.com/2022/07/22/georgetown-revokes-child-behavioral-health-centers-business-license-due-public-nuisance/
[9] “ECU HEALTH: FIVE CLINICS, BEHAVIORAL HEALTH UNITS ARE CLOSING,” Reflector, 25 Jan. 2023. https://www.reflector.com/news/local/ecu-health-five-clinics-behavioral-health-unit-are-closing/article_33b224fd-a714-56fa-8bce-acc7e0ff781c.html
[10] Freeman Stoddard, “Wilderness therapy program in North Carolina closes after 23 years,” FOX Carolina, 15 May 2023, https://www.foxcarolina.com/2023/04/25/wilderness-therapy-program-north-carolina-closes-after-23-years/
[11] https://www.outdoortherapycentre.com/on-track-blog/the-closure-of-evoke-wilderness-therapy-what-does-it-mean-for-outdoor-therapies
[12] https://1000placesudontwanttobe.wordpress.com/2024/08/25/997-evoke-therapy-programs/
[13] Jessica Schreifels, “Blaming ‘punitive’ Utah licensers, Maple Lake Academy closes girls program,” Salt Lake Tribune, 25 Oct. 2024, https://www.sltrib.com/news/health/2024/10/25/maple-lake-academy-embattled-teen/
[14]“Utah treatment center closes abruptly after history of violations and abuse,” 2KUTV, 14 Feb. 2025, https://kutv.com/news/local/utah-treatment-center-closes-abruptly-after-history-of-violations-and-abuse
[15] Sarah Golightley, “Troubling the ‘troubled teen’ industry: Adult reflections on youth experiences of therapeutic boarding schools,” Sage Journals, March 2020, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2043610619900514
[16] “New Regulations For The State’s ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry Win Final Legislative Approval,” KUER, 3 Mar. 2021, https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2021-03-03/new-regulations-for-the-states-troubled-teen-industry-win-final-legislative-approval; Jessica Miller Schreifels and Will Craft, “Utah increased its oversight of its troubled-teen industry. Has it worked?“ The Salt Lake Tribune, 12 Apr. 2022, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/04/12/utah-increased-its/
[17] Courtney Johns, “Lawmakers push for tougher oversight after several deaths in Utah teen treatment centers,” KSL NBC News, 25 Feb. 2025, https://ksltv.com/politics-elections/lawmakers-push-for-tougher-oversight-after-several-deaths-in-utah-teen-treatment-centers-2/743747/; “New whistleblower protections enacted for congregate care programs,” Citizen Portal, 19 Feb. 2025, https://citizenportal.ai/articles/2347806/Utah/New-whistleblower-protections-enacted-for-congregate-care-programs
[18] Ben Winslow, “Bill putting more regulations on Utah’s ‘troubled teen’ facilities advances,” Fox 13 Salt Lake City, 21 Feb. 2025, https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/bill-putting-more-regulations-on-utahs-troubled-teen-facilities-advances
[19] “New Regulations For The State’s ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry Win Final Legislative Approval,” KUER, 3 Mar. 2021, https://www.kuer.org/politics-government/2021-03-03/new-regulations-for-the-states-troubled-teen-industry-win-final-legislative-approval
[20] Martha Kelner “The ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry,” https://news.sky.com/story/snatched-from-their-beds-by-strangers-inside-the-multi-billion-dollar-troubled-teen-industry-12821885
[21] “’They ruined my life’: Inside America’s harrowing ‘wilderness therapy’ camps for ‘troubled teens’ where over a dozen kids have DIED and survivors are left traumatized from ‘torturous abuse in filthy, freezing conditions,’” Daily Mail, 25 Feb. 2024, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13110721/troubled-teen-camps-wilderness-therapy-death-abuse.html
[22] https://www.cchrint.org/2025/02/14/maryland-bill-targets-psychiatric-transport-abuses/; https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/hb0497?ys=2025RS; Amanda Engel, “Paris Hilton testifies in Maryland General Assembly Committee,” WMAR ABC 2, 13 Feb. 2025, https://www.wmar2news.com/local/paris-hilton-testifies-in-maryland-general-assembly-committee
[23] Jessica Miller Schreifels, “Nearly half of Utah’s wilderness programs for ‘troubled teens’ closed in the last year. Here’s what’s happening,” The Salt Lake Tribune, 7 May 2024, https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/05/07/nearly-half-utahs-wilderness/
[24] https://www.cchrint.org/2013/04/01/a-disease-called-childhood; Allen Frances, “A Disease Called Childhood,” New York Post, 31 Mar 2013, https://nypost.com/2013/03/31/a-disease-called-childhood/
[25] https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/pediatric-age-0-18-mental-health-market-117561
[26] https://www.dw.com/en/troubled-teen-industry-in-the-usa-the-prison-school-scandal/a-69963580
[27] “Medical Spending Among US Households With Children With a Mental Health Condition Between 2017 and 2021,” Pediatrics, 11 Mar. 2024, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2815870
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