Lon Woodbury at Struggling Teens recently visited Island View Residential Treatment Center and did a site visit report. This was his first visit to the facility in 15 years and it sounds like things have really changed according to his report.
While my son was in Wilderness I did an RTC tour and Island View RTC was one of the first treatment centers I visited. Island View was also our treatment center of choice and we really wanted him to go there. From experience I have learned that what we want is not always going to work and this placement did not work for us. Do to some of my sons behaviors when he arrived, they did not feel they could keep him safe so we had to find another placement after about 4 weeks. At the time my feeling was ” If IV could not keep our teen safe (it is a full lock down) then who can?” Luckily they gave us time to find a new placement and we moved our son to Heritage in Provo, Utah. At the time it was very traumatic, but looking back it was the best thing that could have happened. Heritage obviously was a better fit and we really did not want our teen at a facility that does not want them.
Many parents speak very highly of the facility. The treatment program usually lasts for about one year, some a little longer. There are many situations where a teen may need a placement for longer than a year. Most teens from Island View transfer to another facility. I think they may have a great program for adopted teens.
Below are images from my visit in June 2007 to Island View RTC.
Read Lon’s site review, it reminds me of my site visit how impressed I was with the facility and the residents that I was able to talk with.
Experience with IV? Leave a comment, let us know how the program worked for your family.
Note 3/22/10: Blake Taylor a therapist that worked at Island View since 1999 just left. I think he was very popular with the parents and teens. From what I understand he has moved to another facility near by but I don’t know which.
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