One of the most maddening things about being a product of the dysfunctional family with means complex is knowing that the abuse is still happening. That despite the Congressional reports, despite books like Julia Scheeres’ Jesus Land, or Maia Szalavitz’s Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, or Kate Logan’s documentary Kidnapped for Christ, the teen treatment industry is still unregulated.
That’s why it’s important that a coalition of organizations, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, Survivors of Institutional Abuse (SIA), & Mental Health America, have united to introduce a federal bill called the“Stop Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs for Teens Act.” This bill will regulate the teen treatment industry. It will include no exemptions for religious institutions, which abuse kids tax-free.
You can sign the petition to introduce the bill here.