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Abuse and misleading marketing alleged in therapy camp

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Abuse and misleading marketing alleged in therapy camp

The parents of a former camper who attended Trails Carolina, a therapy camp in Western North Carolina that is now closed, have filed a class-action lawsuit, accusing the camp and its owners, Oregon-based Family Help & Wellness of unfair business practices and causing emotional distress. fear.

A former camper also sued the camp and related entities that same day, Oct. 11, claiming staff abused him during his 93-day stay in 2021.

The lawsuits, filed in U.S. District Court in North Carolina, allege that the camp misrepresented its services to parents and emotionally, physically and sexually abused the camper.

It is unclear whether the complainants are related. An attorney for Trails Carolina did not respond to an email from the Citizen Times seeking comment. A spokesperson who previously represented the camp also did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Family Health & Wellness. The camp’s operators have previously faced civil lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny, records show.

In his lawsuit, the former camper, identified by the pseudonym John Doe, alleged that when he arrived at camp in March 2021, staff stripped him to his underwear in the presence of a female staff member and conducted an invasive search, during which he touched his body, among other things. genitals without his consent. He then spent two weeks alone in a hut with two staff members. The camp labeled it a precautionary quarantine period due to the pandemic.

“He had no contact with peers during this time,” his attorneys wrote. “As a result, his mental health began to deteriorate further.”

According to the lawsuit, the camper, who was 18 at the time, was not allowed to leave the camp; was forced to perform unpaid labor such as cleaning camp bathrooms and dormitories; was subject to strict supervision; and he was limited to just one phone call to his parents during his more than three-month stay in the camp.

“During the single telephone conversation John was allowed to have with his parents, John’s therapist limited what could be discussed and the duration of the conversation,” his attorneys wrote. “If he tried to raise concerns about his well-being or about abuse and neglect from the program, his therapist would mute the call to prevent that information from reaching his parents.”

The lawsuit also says Trails Carolina forced the camper to go on days-long hikes in freezing temperatures without adequate food or water, and that the camp failed to provide the proper mental health care he needed, with only a weekly one-hour session with his parents. assigned therapist. Instead, the camper, who suffered from depression, spent most of his time with untrained staff, who his lawyers said caused his mental health to “deteriorate rapidly.”

Just five months after leaving camp in June 2021, the camper attempted suicide in his dorm room, the lawsuit said.

“John has suffered tremendous trauma and damage to his mental health as a result of his experience at Trails,” his attorneys wrote. “He still suffers vivid nightmares about being forced to remain in the program with no means of escape.”

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages under state and federal law.

“These organizations, entrusted with the well-being and safety of children and young adults, must be held accountable for the harm and injury they have caused to our clients and their parents,” said Kim Dougherty, an attorney at Justice Law Collaborative. Massachusetts-based law firm representing the camper and parents said in a Nov. 20 statement to the Citizen Times. “This misconduct must end, children and young adults must be safe and cared for in these types of facilities.”

In their class action lawsuit, the parents, identified as Jane and June Doe, said Trails Carolina marketed its program as a safe and effective mental health treatment. Instead, the camp “dehumanized” children and young adults, exposing them to neglect and abuse.

Trails Carolina “misrepresented the true nature of their programs and thereby manipulated vulnerable parents, such as Jane and June Doe, into believing that defendants would care for their vulnerable children and young adults who were struggling with challenges, including thoughts of suicide, and offer them a place. to heal and develop,” the parents’ lawyers wrote.

According to the lawsuit, the parents paid $585 per day, plus a $3,900 registration fee, for the first 42 days. Two-week extensions were available for more than $8,000.

The class action lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages under the Unfair Deceptive Trade Practices Acts of North Carolina and Florida, and the Unlawful Trade Practices Act of Oregon.

A turbulent history

Trails Carolina’s parent company, Family Help & Wellness, continues to operate therapeutic camps and residential treatment programs in North Carolina, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. According to its website, the organization owns Momentum, a therapeutic wilderness program in Pisgah Forest; Asheville Academy, a therapeutic boarding school for girls ages 11 to 14; and Magnolia Mill School in Weaverville, a residential treatment center for teens that previously operated as Solstice East.

In 2021, the USA TODAY Network detailed allegations of neglect and abuse experienced by former Solstice East clients.

Prior to these most recent lawsuits, Trails Carolina, which operated on a 32-acre property in Lake Toxaway in Transylvania County, was at the center of controversy and other allegations of neglect and abuse.

Two federal lawsuits alleging negligence in the alleged assaults of two former campers were settled earlier this year. Both victims claimed that two other campers attacked them and that staff failed to protect them.

Following an investigation into the death of a 12-year-old camper in February, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced its intention to revoke the camp’s operating permit, and the camp lost its accreditation from the non- profit Association for Experiential Education. . The boy suffocated in his one-person tent while four adult staff were in the hut at the time. District Attorney Andrew Murray declined to file charges.

The boy, from New York, was the second camper to die at the camp since 2014.

Still, the camp has contested the loss of its operating permit and filed an appeal with the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings in July.

In August, the camp grounds were put up for sale for $3.2 million. It is still on the market.

More: Western NC therapy camp for sale after death of 12-year-old camper and loss of accreditation

More: Western NC therapy camp Trails Carolina loses accreditation after death of New York boy

Jacob Biba is the provincial watchdog reporter at the Asheville Citizen Times. Reach him at [email protected].

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