Spring Lake Ranch Therapeutic Community applauds Netflix’s new docuseries, “The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping,” for illuminating realities within unregulated mental health programs.
“The Program” comes from filmmaker Katherine Kubler, who was a resident at the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a now-shuttered youth program in Ogdensburg, NY. Spring Lake Ranch (SLR) is located just a few hours east of Ivy Ridge. SLR is grateful to Kubler and Netflix for shining a light on the way unregulated mental health care can harm not just clients, but their families and greater communities as well.
People looking for support with mental health already face enough hurdles. Regulations are necessary to protect care-seekers from potential bad actors. The Ranch makes it a priority to ensure that clients receive the highest quality of care in a safe and transparent environment. A member of the American Residential Treatment Association (ARTA), the Ranch is also accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), who set the standard for care in the industry.
“The accreditation process is a collaborative one,” says Lynn Pilcher, our Director of Quality Assurance. “The aim is to help us improve even beyond the awesome program we already have. Of the 1,400 behavioral standards set by CARF, we passed with flying colors with less than twenty recommendations for improvement.”
Even more meaningful to our staff was the accreditor’s report on resident experience. Residents told her that they felt “respected and appreciated” at the Ranch, and that the Therapeutic Work Program empowers them and helps improve their well-being.
In addition to accreditation, another way the Ranch ensures residents receive appropriate care is by using evidence-based modalities for treatment. An evidence-based treatment is one that has been researched on a wide scale and has shown effectiveness. The Ranch also uses research-based surveys to gather data on resident outcomes. You can read more about our outcomes here.
For individuals struggling with mental illness and addiction, as well as their loved ones, the process of finding appropriate and effective care can be a difficult, frustrating, and sometimes endless one. If you’re looking for safe, regulated residential care, a good starting place is the ARTA website. If you think the Ranch might be the right place for you, reach out to our admissions team.
