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Provo Canyon School began in the 1970’s as a behavior modification school for troubled adolescent boys. Clientele at that time consisted primarily of boys who exhibited a pattern of negativistic, hostile, and defiant behavior. Parents couldn’t control them, school districts couldn’t keep them in school, and communities found them to be a persistent problem to their judicial system. They were boys who frequently and dangerously lost their tempers, often fought with their peers, argued with their parents and other adults, resented authority, and defied laws. They were bullies who were spiteful and vindictive. Often, their budding antisocial behavior had an even more dangerous component that included gang involvement, substance abuse, and criminal behavior. Yet, they were young enough and not quite bad enough to warrant incarceration with big-time felons.

Provo Canyon School arose as an important answer to this social need.  Throughout the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, Provo Canyon School became nationally and even internationally recognized as a place where adolescents with this type of behavior could find help, and families, school districts, and societies could find relief. 

The prevailing treatment philosophies for oppositional defiance in the 1970s and 80s focused on behavior modification techniques.  Simply stated, it was held that youth who acted out in socially dangerous and acceptable ways could be positively influenced toward more acceptable behavior by strict structure, rules, accountability, and consequence.  The School developed a behavior modification program geared to adolescents that essentially removed them from their prior enabling environment and placed them in a high-structure environment of rules, expectations, and consequences.  Staff of Provo Canyon School was clearly and firmly in charge.  The school was run with the precision of a military organization, right down to the structuring and ordering of drawers, beds, closets, and personal areas. 

The intake and orientation process was one of teaching rules, expectations, and consequences.  Youth were required grilled on the structure and rules of the program, and they were subjected to a complex system of points for compliance and demerits for noncompliance.  Progress in the program depended upon a youth’s willingness to live successfully within this system of control and to abide by the rules.  Slippage brought immediate confrontation and consequence that could include loss of status, loss of merit points, and, worst of all to the youth, a stopping or resetting of the clock.

Provo Canyon School’s facilities were built to withstand and cope with the oppositional personality.  Procedures were strictly implemented and regularly trained to staff on how to interact with youth.  The direct-line staff was highly proficient on Non-violent Crisis Intervention techniques of how to interact and defuse a potentially dangerous or explosive situation.  When physical confrontation did occur, the student and staff welfare was always the most important consideration, and PCS team members were the best in the business in handling the situation with care and humaneness.  Nurses, doctors, and staff worked as a team to resolve the issues and give meaningful care. Debriefings were always held after an incident to promote accountability, learning, and understanding.

Provo Canyon School was not an easy environment to work in during those earlier years, nor was it easy for the youth.  The nature of the clientele, their problems, and the rigid behavior modification approach of the staff charged the program with periodic tension.  Youth were used to getting their way by defying, bullying, and forcing their behavior on parents, family, and peers.  They ran into a brick wall at Provo Canyon School with staff that was too big, too well trained, and too determined to give in to their negativity.  They suddenly found themselves following a highly structured routine with chores, activities, and school.  They found that they were held accountable for their choices to follow or not follow the program.  They found it difficult if not impossible to practice their fine art of splitting, manipulating, and blaming.  If they misbehaved, they received consequence; if they tried to hide or deceive, they were confronted; if they ran they were hunted and brought back; if they stopped working their program the clock stopped on their discharge date.  The message was clear: you can choose what you will but there will be consequences for your choices.  Choose wisely.

Most youth made progress while in this environment, and it was hoped that they could connect the dots between doing good in treatment and sustaining that behavior when discharged. Youth who worked their program inevitably found success, and the “terrible staff” whom they had railed against as abusive, mean, and insensitive strangely became their mentors and friends.  They found that they could succeed in school and they found that they actually had talents and skills and interests worth pursuing.  Provo Canyon School’s program proved highly successful for this type of youth provided that they remained in treatment long enough.  The average stay back in those days was 14-months.  Some stayed as long as two years.

It was particularly difficult to sustain the behavior once discharged back to their old environments, especially in situations where parents, families, and extended families did little or nothing to improve themselves and change some things.  When parents and family members placed all the blame for problems on the teen, the absolved themselves from a duty to improve and change, and, instead, focused on the child’s need for change.  Relapse into the old behaviors was predictable with amazingly accuracy in such families.

Over the years, Provo Canyon School has recognized the importance of and obligation it has to its clients to diminish recidivism and improve the sustainability of the changes that are made by youth while in treatment.  No longer could PCS simply rely on old modification behavior techniques of rules and consequence.  It needed to adjust to changes in demands and to find more powerful ways to provide care.  Over the years, Provo Canyon School has built over the years a solid team of professional medical personnel, clinical therapists and psychologists, team coaches, and teachers and other staff that together form a powerful treatment team. 

Beginning in 2004, more changes began to be made in the program with a driving emphasis to find the best practices in care that promoted the highest possibility for sustainable change without losing the proven qualities that made Provo Canyon School one of the finest treatment programs in the nation.

The Vision.  Change at Provo Canyon School began with the conceptualization of a vision and expanded philosophy of care.  The vision of care was one of strength-based empowerment within an environment of care, concern, and accountability.  Emphasis was placed on influencing growth in the deeper values, beliefs, and standards that are the core of outward behavior.  The belief of the PCS was that if an environment of care and concern could be created where specific core beliefs and values could be practiced and to which youth could be held accountable, that a sustainable change in outer behavior could results.  This would be especially possible if PCS staff, youth, and parents/family could be united to this. Provo Canyon School staff were given one major task: to create a treatment environment of care and concern and accountability.  Students had two responsibilities: (1) to recognize and work through their own problems, and (2) to contribute to the environment of care, concern, and accountability.

Re-organization.  The vision at Provo Canyon School required some organizational changes.  Inhibiting walls of the past were torn down.  Group living and therapy were combined under one head: clinical services.  Doctors, nurses, and teachers were brought into this fold as much as possible.  Small homogenous teams were created with 10-11 youth and consistent team staff.  Each PCS team had the same therapist.  The name of group living staff was changed to coach to reflect a change in assignment: they were to actively coach the youth much like an athletic team coach would influence and mold a team of players.

Standards of Excellence.  At the heart of the program at Provo Canyon School were the standards of excellence composed by program directors.  The standards of excellence included core beliefs, core values, and traits of excellence.  Seven core beliefs provided the foundation for all care.  They included individual worth, teamwork, positive affirmation of problems, accountability, care and concern for each other, resources, and the value of service.  Seven core values provided the teams a code or standard by which they were expected to measure and live their lives.  They provided the real environment at Provo Canyon School and included openness, care and concern, trust, responsibility, service, leadership, and gratitude.  Twelve traits of excellence were identified that represented both the problems the youth were facing and the goals in behavior that they were supposed to achieve.  They included self-esteem, care and concern for self and others, control of emotions, acceptance of authority, self-determination (able to identify right and wrong and choose right), truthful, honest, influence for good, accountability, knowledge and learning, and clean and sober lifestyle.

These standards, beliefs, and values were taught and enforced throughout the Provo Canyon School program beginning with staff and employees and extending to all youth.  The levels of advancement were tailored to reflect these standards so that progress in the program was not merely achieved by talking the talk, but actually showed that the student could walk the walk, or sustain a deeper positive value system.

The outer structure of Provo Canyon School’s program, its rules, accountabilities, and consequences remained fairly untouched, this for the safety of all and for good order and discipline.  But the spirit of the program made some decidedly deeper inroads to sustainable change.  No longer was it just kids trying to abide by rules to avoid consequences and get privileges and advance in status; it was kids trying to live by a code of ethics which was being taught and to which they were being held accountable by coaches, therapists, and team members.  They were actually required to practice positive ideals and to talk about them on a daily basis.  It became a culture rather than just a program.

These standards and values of Provo Canyon School’s program were taught to the parents and family members, and they were encouraged to support them.  Copies of the standards of excellence were provided and taught to parents during parent support groups across the nation.  These standards were continually referred to by therapists and others during therapy phone calls each week with parents and youth.  Progress was measured and reported according to these standards.

Several things challenge the success of Provo Canyon School’s efforts in promoting sustainable change in its clients.  Sustainable change takes an investment of time and money.  The deeper the problems the more challenging it becomes to make positive change and adequate growth to sustain change.  Four challenges are briefly mentioned below. 

(1)        The disintegration of social and family morale values.  It used to be that the communal morality and values were stronger than they are today.  Core values and beliefs of honesty, integrity, morality, hard work, religiosity, spirituality and dependability are simply not being taught in American homes like they used to be.  Core standards that helped youth develop into solid citizens are missing.  There are causes for this, but they are rationalizations and excuses that reflect a lapse in parental attentiveness.  Not all parental faults, society and government have played their role in waging war against family solidarity and solid value systems.  The unfortunate result is that more youth are struggling to become responsible adults and are getting into more trouble earlier in life.  Provo Canyon School sees this in its admission data, and this makes cultivating these values and standards in the lives of youth who come into the program more difficult and time consuming; often a luxury the school doesn’t have.

(2)        Disintegration of marriage and family institutions.  The stability of marriages and the integrity of the home where youth are raised are decreasing.  More frequently, homes are invaded by abuse, violence, and other influences that destroy a good value system.  The marriage between mother and father is profoundly visible in kids in treatment.  A large majority of students at Provo Canyon School come from not only broken homes, but parents that are in disharmony with each other over standards and values and procedures.  Kids are caught in the crossfire of these domestic battles, and they are paying a heavy price in self-esteem, loyalty, direction, and grounding.  Parents are too busy and too focused on material things that monitoring and raising children has become a secondary job.

(3)        Deeper and more pervasive sickness in patients.  There has been a gradual worsening of the psychological ailments that bring youth into residential treatment.  Although opposition, defiance, and conduct disorder symptoms remain evident in admitting students, more often, students seeking admission to Provo Canyon School are diagnosable with more pervasive personality disorders and serious emotional and behavioral disturbances.  The causes seem self-evident to those who work at places like Provo Canyon School.  They are caused by a sicker society.

(4)        Greater costs for treatment and fewer payer sources.  The cost for residential care is high.  The average American family cannot afford to pay the monthly tuition for residential facilities, but must rely on school districts, insurance companies, and other third-party payer sources.  For this reason, treatment authorizations are more difficult to obtain and to retain.  People look for quicker fixes.  Growth is reduced and recidivism is increased under such conditions.

As long as our society values its children, there is hope that adults will recognize that it is far cheaper to prevent disease and disability than to rehabilitate it.  Provo Canyon School hopes that parents and society will pay the price to help children grow up in their natural environments healthy and strong.  Until that happens, Provo Canyon School and other places like it will continue to try and help.

The summer of 2006 was filled with summer games, career week activities, field trips, and assemblies. Career week was a great success where students were able to hear from many professionals in a variety of different careers. The assemblies and field trips included: enjoying a Covey representative at a leadership conference at Utah Valley State College, hearing from ex NFL football players, and listening to and enjoying the sound of the Alpine Pipes and Drum Band. The boys and girls campus also had an active extramural sporting program in basketball, soccer and softball.

The Chemical Dependency program successfully completed a retreat in July 2006. During the retreat, the students painted their faces to show self-expression and a drum circle taught the girls about how their personal rhythm affects everyone's rhythm. Additionally, there was a recovery concert featuring a rock band called “Three Days Grace” from Hollywood, California. The band members shared their personal experience about the road to recovery through rock music tunes. The concert turned out to be a rewarding and unique experience to students.

The whole day of July 13, 2006 from 6am to 5pm was great fun for 30 Orem Campus students. The occasion was a retreat by Jeanette Brown and the staff members.

The thirty girls were divided to three groups with differently colored wristband for all three groups. Each group then had to assign a team name for themselves and make a theme jingle for their team. The noisiest and most excited group was allowed to have their breakfast first, which was prepared by Jeanette and the staff members.

The subsequent lunch was also a great success with the girls making the ice cream. More activities to improve self-expression; and the effect of rhythm on our lives were observed.

The rock band-Three Days Grace was in concert near the Orem Campus. A couple of band members talked about their fight against drug addiction apart from playing some rock songs. The band travels through US and Canada with the purpose of spreading the message of drug de-addiction. The evening was an enjoyable experience for all present.