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WASHINGTON | In a hearing designed to expose deceptive marketing practices in the residential treatment industry for troubled teens, a northwest Missouri referral agency was singled out Thursday on Capitol Hill.
The hearing, held before a House committee, included testimony of examples of cruelty and neglect used by officials at boot camps and residential treatment centers.
It highlighted what Greg Kutz called “deceptive and other questionable” marketing tactics by some referral agencies. Kutz, who is leading an investigation into youth residential programs for the federal Government Accountability Office, specifically named Parent Help of Gallatin, Mo., as one of them.
For example: Despite online descriptions that say Parent Help workers will “look at your special situation and help you select the best school for your teen,” all three GAO investigators who called Parent Help with fictitious stories about their children were referred to Thayer Learning Center.
Parent Help is owned by John Bundy, while Thayer is owned by his wife, Willa Bundy.
“They didn’t disclose that to us as parents,” Kutz testified.
Thayer Learning Center, where Roberto Reyes of California died at age 15 in November 2004 after his parents were referred to the school through Parent Help, is located about 50 miles northeast of Kansas City in Kidder. Parent Help is less than 15 miles from there.
Officials at Thayer and attorneys for Thayer didn’t return calls from The Star on Thursday.
The GAO found that among the more questionable practices were false promises of tax incentives and insurance reimbursements. Monthly charges ranged from $2,800 to $13,000, Kutz said.
In a recorded conversation excerpted during the hearing, an official with Parent Help told a GAO investigator that a “whole-grain diet” coupled with exercise and sleep would cause a child’s bipolar disorder and depression to “just go away after a while.”
An agent at a different agency told an investigator posing as the father of a troubled teenage girl that her mother would “freak out” if she knew what kind of place their daughter was going to.
“I want you to tell her it’s a college prep boarding school,” the agent said, according to the GAO. “If she thinks that you want to send her daughter to a place where there are drug addicts and people that are all screwed up, she will look at you and say, ‘No way.’ ”
The hearing was designed to call attention to lax oversight of such facilities. There is no federal oversight, and state oversight is loose and inconsistent, according to the GAO.
U.S. Rep. George Miller of California, chairman of the House education committee, introduced legislation this week that would set up minimum standards for all programs.
“This legislation would take the first step toward finally ending the horrific abuses that have gone on far too long in private residential treatment programs for teens,” Miller said.
In a January 2005 report, The Star disclosed the relationship between Thayer and Parent Help and identified several parents who felt deceived. They had called a Parent Help hot line and were all strongly encouraged to send their kids to Thayer — and only Thayer.
None of them was told of the connection between Parent Help and Thayer.
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