| New
Perspectives
- Jun, 1992 Issue |
Forest Heights
Lodge
Evergreen, Colorado
Russ Colburn, Executive Director
(303) 674-6681
Founded in 1954
by Henry and Claire Swartwood, Forest Heights admits emotionally
troubled boys between five and fourteen years of age. They
have developed a milieu based on the attachment model, believing
"that many of the boys' most severe problems have been caused
... by their inability to make real attachments to others."
The staff have found "that the children considered 'ill' suffer
not so much from a consuming illness as from failure to develop
the strengths and potential that lie within them. Their environment
has made demands that they could not adequately meet, and
their responses have become more and more inadequate, hopeless
and self-destructive." "The real future for these children
is not in removal from normal life but in a revitalization
of their life processes through the full use of environment,
professional resources and trained, committed adults." "We
believe that children will 'risk' getting well by building
close, trusting relationships with staff members, particularly
child care workers. To that end, therapeutic emphasis is directed
toward a child's daily living environment. It is there a child
will try what he learns and decide that changing pays off
and is worth the risk." Their expansion in the last few years
has been through training and consultation programs, "which
impact thousands of professionals and thereby more thousands
of children."
Copyright
© 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper
publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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