I was a client at Laurel Heights for 9 months back in 1999-2000 and today I have two graduate degrees and work in the healthcare field myself. The trick to Laurel Heights though is that they can only help children/teens who want to change their own behavior, their parents desire for their behavior to change is not enough. I attended high school an extra year when I got out to be able to go to college because of accreditation issues however I had no issues with that because I resolved my other issues first. Parents who would not send their kids to Laurel Heights over that issue need to ask themselves what the odds are their kids will graduate high school anyway without getting help. The staff here are great with their clients. They do not have "attitude" issues but it's also not their job to give parents daily updates they have weekly visitation hours during which parents can come visit their children and see progress for themselves. With only 3-4 staff on duty in a unit on a daily basis they may be busy controlling clients throwing furniture, cutting their wrists etc. they really aren't lazy they just don't have time to sit on the phone and gab. In terms of what I gained from my experience beyond what I came for I learned a great deal about people of other races and religious backgrounds and that really helped to prepare me for the real world. I also found the brothers and sisters I always wanted and never had growing up and true to my promise to them I never forgot any of them although we might have lost touch as I was going through other placements. In fact in grad school many times when I wanted to give up it was my promise to them that was able to keep me going as we all made a pact that if we were successful we'd use that influence to bring attention to issues we faced. Just felt the need to defend a great institution in the community.
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