Aspen Education Group is an American company specializing in providing
therapeutic interventions for adolescents and young adults, including
wilderness therapy
Wilderness therapy, also known as outdoor behavioral healthcare, is a treatment option for behavioral disorders, substance abuse, and mental health issues in adolescents. Patients spend time living outdoors with peers. Reports of abuse, death ...
programs,
residential treatment center
A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch ...
s,
therapeutic boarding school
A therapeutic boarding school is a residential school offering therapy for students with emotional or behavioral issues. Description
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs listed 140 schools and programs as of 2005. Therapeut ...
s, and
weight loss
Weight loss, in the context of medicine, health, or physical fitness, refers to a reduction of the total body mass, by a mean loss of fluid, body fat ( adipose tissue), or lean mass (namely bone mineral deposits, muscle, tendon, and other co ...
programs. Since November 2006, Aspen Education Group, with corporate offices located in
Cerritos,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
has been a division of
Bain Capital
Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry se ...
's
CRC Health.
History
Aspen Education Group, Inc. was formed in December 1997 as a spin-off of College Health Enterprises. In 1998, Aspen was reported to have annual revenues of $28 million. That same year, the Sprout Group and Frazier Healthcare Ventures of Seattle purchased major interests in the company. In 2002, Aspen obtained an investment of $15 million from
Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...
and $48 million or more in loans from
CapitalSource
CapitalSource is a commercial lender in the United States. It is a division of Pacific Western Bank and provides senior debt loans of $5 million to $100 million to middle-market companies throughout the United States. The company targets specif ...
and Caltius Mezzanine. For 2006, it projected revenue of $150 million. In 2005, The New York Times reported that analysts estimated that companies like Aspen had profits between 10 and 20 percent of their revenues.
Programs
Active
Active programs are listed in the table below, sortable by name, type or location. Most programs are members of the
National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs
The National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs (NATSAP) is a United States trade organization of therapeutic boarding school, therapeutic schools, residential treatment center, residential treatment programs, Wilderness therapy, wild ...
(NATSAP); several have additional affiliations, such as the National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camping.
Closed
Controversies and criticisms
The Aspen Education Group in 2005 was the target of criticism related to the large revenues its programs generated, and the charge that the provider takes advantage of parents in desperate situations.
In January 2014, Aspen Education Group was accused of "
slavery
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
", "
abuse", and "
false imprisonment
False imprisonment or unlawful imprisonment occurs when a person intentionally restricts another person’s movement within any area without legal authority, justification, or the restrained person's permission. Actual physical restraint is ...
" in a lawsuit by the family of a teenage girl who claims she was berated on television by Dr. Phil and then sent to a
residential treatment center
A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch ...
owned by Aspen where she was falsely imprisoned, filed a civil complaint in federal court. The girl and her mother appeared on the "
Dr. Phil" show in February 2013. In the episode, the teen admitted to having sex with adult men she met online, which the family called "bizarre and dangerous conduct" in their lawsuit. To help the family, Dr. Phil then paid for the daughter to enroll at Aspen's
Island View Residential Treatment Center. In their suit, the family calls the facility a "private prison" where their daughter was deprived her of freedom, privacy, education, and subjected to "
involuntary servitude
Involuntary servitude or involuntary slavery is a legal and constitutional term for a person laboring against that person's will to benefit another, under some form of coercion, to which it may constitute slavery. While laboring to benefit anothe ...
, and unjust unusual punishments." In one incident, the daughter apparently refused to obey staff members who told her to get off of her bed. When staff members tried to pull her off, her right arm "was badly and perhaps irreparably broken, and its main nerve severely damaged," the lawsuit states. The family also claims the teenage girl's constitutional rights were violated and she was falsely imprisoned, as well as alleging conspiracy and fraud.
In 2009, Oregon state investigators stated that they had found nine cases of abuse and neglect at
Mount Bachelor Academy
Mount Bachelor Academy (known as MBA) was an Oregon private co-educational therapeutic boarding school providing help to families of adolescents experiencing emotional and behavioral disorders including, minor Depressive Disorder, Oppositional ...
, and the school was ordered to close.
Aspen denied the allegations,
and after a legal settlement the findings were modified to read that "the agency had reasonable cause to believe that abuse or neglect occurred at the school".
[Mount Bachelor Academy, DHS reach settlement](_blank)
Jason Chaney, October 7, 2010, ''Central Oregonian
The ''Central Oregonian'' is a twice-weekly newspaper published in Prineville in the U.S. state of Oregon. Tracing its roots to 1881, the paper covers Central Oregon where it is the newspaper of record for Crook County.
In 1921, a merger of the ...
'', Retrieved 2010-10-14
In 2008, a 16-year-old girl enrolled at the
Bromley Brook School became involved in a sexual relationship with a teacher. The 40-year-old teacher subsequently pleaded guilty to sexual exploitation of a minor.
In 2004, a 14-year-old boy died at Aspen's Lone State Expeditions wilderness program. During the program, the boy and his group had hiked several miles in 90-degree weather. In 2006, a wrongful death lawsuit was brought against Aspen Education Group over the incident. Aspen later settled the case out of court.
In news and popular culture
Several Aspen Educational Group programs have been featured in the media:
* An article in the UK ''Sunday Mirror'' described the experiences of a teenage girl from England who attended Aspen Achievement Academy.
* The British TV documentary ''Britain's Youngest Boozers'', broadcast October 25, 2005 featured the Aspen program SUWS of the Carolinas.
* SageWalk (not yet owned by Aspen when aired) was featured in the American version of ''Brat Camp''.
* Aspen Education programs have been featured multiple times on the ''
Dr. Phil'' show in the United States.
* Passages to Recovery and NorthStar Center were featured on
A&E Television Network's documentary series "
Intervention".
* Aspen Education Group's programs were called a "carousel of treatment" in an article from Utah NPR
References
External links
Aspen Education Groupofficial website
{{Bain Capital
Bain Capital companies
Cerritos, California
Education companies of the United States
Special schools in the United States