SUWS Adolescent specializes in helping struggling teens ages 14-17with behavioral and emotional problems. Operating in southern Idaho since 1981, SUWS has assisted young people with identifying and working through internal conflicts and emotional obstacles that have kept them from responding to parental efforts, schools, and treatment.
Program Emphasis
Gender
Type Of Stay
Location
AD/HD Developmental Disabilities Learning Disabilities Social Skills Substance Abuse
Tuition for a minimum 21-day enrollment in SUWS Adolescent Program (ages 14-17) is $2870 per week.
Program length is 3 to 9 weeks. Payment in full is required upon enrollment. If you have health insurance and would like a statement of your child's SUWS placement, we will be happy to provide you with a statement of services. However, SUWS is unable to directly bill insurance companies and therefore requires parents to assume this responsibility independent of tuition payment.
With interest rates at an all-time low, education loans present an attractive option for parents interested in the SUWS program. K-12 education loans through KeyBank, Prepgate, and SallieMae can mean that a 21-day stay could cost less than $100 per month (see below). Please contact us to get more information about these financing alternatives.
SUWS utilizes a phase system for the students that is designed to be challenging and rewarding. Each phase builds on the student learning more about him/herself and becoming more independent.
The Search and Rescue On Call (for more information please see our detailed description) Phase becomes the final phase of the program for every student, regardless of the length of stay. For example, if a student stays for the 21-day minimum, the phases would include, Individual, Family, and Search and Rescue On Call.
More About Camp
SUWS Adolescent specializes in helping struggling teens ages 14-17with behavioral and emotional problems. Operating in southern Idaho since 1981, SUWS has assisted young people with identifying and working through internal conflicts and emotional obstacles that have kept them from responding to parental efforts, schools, and treatment. These are children who are inherently good and have the ability to be successful, but because of unhealthy misperceptions about themselves, they have limited access to their own abilities and strengths. SUWS provides families with a safe and immediate intervention by utilizing its search and rescue metaphor, individualized treatment plans, and flexible length of stay. The outdoor environment and experiential learning help students recognize and build upon their own sense of self-worth as they learn the value of helping others.
The SUWS Troubled Teen Program is based on a search and rescue metaphor. We know that human beings need and want to contribute to a larger cause. At SUWS the search and rescue metaphor is the vehicle by which this is accomplished. From learning primitive living skills to basic orienteering and first aid techniques, students are personally challenged. In the midst of giving of themselves, they find themselves.
The search and rescue curriculum includes first aid, map and compass use, and team response to emergencies. It is not our intent to train troubled teen students to be search and rescue professionals, but rather to allow them to discover their inner strengths and value by becoming essential, functioning members of a team.
SUWS utilizes a phase system for the students that is designed to be challenging and rewarding. Each phase builds on the student learning more about him/herself and becoming more independent. The names and descriptions of the phases are:
INDIVIDUAL Individual Phase is an evaluative period to assess the student's physical health and emotional appropriateness to meet the program's design.
The goals are to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying issues, identify and interrupt negative coping patterns, and create a desire for change. A philosophy of inherent goodness and individual worth lies at the base of all staff/student interaction.
FAMILY Family Phase focuses on practicing the healthy coping strategies learned in Individual Phase. As students learn the effect their behavior has on others, they develop communication skills that were lost or not well developed. They learn how position and authority are earned through the process of respect and willingness to take responsibility for the welfare of others.
As physical challenges are met, it becomes evident that they are more capable than previously believed. "If I can do this, I can do anything" has become the motto of Family Phase.
COMMUNITY Community Phase works on the use of self-awareness and relationship skills in the capacity of unconditional service toward others. It is during this phase that most students learn about future placement plans or direction. For therapeutic purposes, communication between the student and the outside world may expand to conference calls with parents, schools, etc., to help the student clarify his or her circumstances. Added communication is used to gather additional insights into family dynamics and to further empower the parents' obligation to take whatever steps are necessary for the good of the student and the family. Group initiatives, metaphors, and games are used to keep the morale at progressive levels.
EXPLORER Explorer Phase energetically delves into values clarification. The curriculum flows toward utilizing innate gifts and talents and identifying what makes each person unique. The process begins with a personality profile to help students understand predispositions, innate strengths, and inherent weaknesses. The lessons then move toward building strength of character through interpersonal interactions. Respecting the views and values of others is key to this process, and students are primed to share their discoveries with peers. It is the service and willing sacrifice necessary before a student gives him/herself permission to change.
NAVIGATOR With a healthier self-image comes a desire to achieve new heights of empowerment to cope with the potential obstacles and inevitable pitfalls ahead. The SUWS curriculum lends itself to further exploration into human behavior and the ability to reason, strategize, and set short- and long-term goals. Students learn acceptance of factors that limit choices and the value of focusing on what they have and taking advantage of the privileges they are afforded.
Service projects tailored to reinforce specific areas of personal development expand the students' positive reference experience. Students who succeed will carry their triumphs outside the highly structured SUWS environment.
GUIDE The statement, "The teacher learns more than the student," applies as the student becomes a mentor to his or her peers. With a story to tell, the student shares his/her emotional and physical encounters. The Guide walks on fertile soil, expanding his or her capacity to understand hidden truths in character and to use those strengths as an influence for good for others.
SEARCH AND RESCUE ON CALL This is the moment they have all been waiting for. The group is about to go "on call" as a search and rescue team. They are ready to give of themselves both emotionally and physically to care for others in need, willing to sacrifice personal comforts and work as a team to conquer any stumbling blocks that may face them. They are prepared for this, and by completing this final step are preparing for the ultimate challenge--leaving the desert environment, which by now has come to mean personal safety, self-reliance, emotional growth, and home.
Training includes working together on a ropes course, reviewing first aid and navigation skills, and mastery of wilderness skills. The team will focus on several types of rescue. The first is referred to as an emotional rescue. They will be called upon to visit groups where new students may be struggling. Through sharing their own experiences, they will offer hope and encouragement to others, while at the same time reaffirming to themselves the accomplishments they have made. Second, the team will be tasked with a simulation that will require them to use their navigation skills to locate a "missing" person. Once found, they will conduct a physical assessment, treating all ailments that may be present.
Search and Rescue. Those words have come to mean a lot over the course of the past weeks. In learning to search and rescue oneself searching and rescuing those within a group or family, and working together with others to search and rescue those within a community, the challenges and rewards have been great, worthwhile, and life changing. Our students are now prepared to go searching and rescuing in the world beyond. It is not the end; it is just the beginning.
SOLO Going on a personal solo is something many of us wish we had time to do. A valuable component of a student's course is the completion of a solo. Time is spent reflecting on the past and focusing on building a more successful future. Solo is something that is earned, prepared for, and coincides with a student's therapeutic outcomes and goals. It usually occurs during the Family or Community Phase of the program. Solo is typically three days and two nights. Students are highly supervised by staff members who check on them a minimum of three times a day to ensure their safety. They are close in proximity to staff but are asked to maintain an established physical boundary. Students are tasked with assignments, including journal and letter writing and skills mastery. A book is selected from our trail library and is usually chosen for the message it contains for each child.
EDUCATION CREDIT Students receive a new portion of their academic curriculum at the start of each phase. The completed curriculum contains philosophy, outdoor skills instruction, history and science lessons, journal assignments, and stories. Students may receive transferable credit from their local school district. SUWS provides parents with a grade sheet that allocates hours spent in specific school subjects (creative writing, healthy living, psychology of daily living, physical education, environmental science, first aid, and personal development). Parents simply need to turn in this grade sheet with the completed curriculum to their school counselor, who will have it assessed for academic credit. Many families have been successful in obtaining credit for their child in this manner.
Activities & Features
Outdoor Activities
Mountaineering Ropes Course Backpacking Hiking Rock Climbing
Water Sports
Swimming Canoeing Fishing Rowing
Other Activities
Individual and Group Counseling Leadership Training Survival Skills Decision-Making Skills Community Skills
