Red River Youth Academy

I’m going into this facitilty tommrow today is thrusday April 6 Tom row is when I leave I’ve herd reviews about this place about how they treat you horrible and stuff like they treat you like prisoners and don’t feed you but hopefully everything goes good

I just want to be able to talk to my kid. So far we have had no other issues other then not hearing from my son for days at a time.

I am incredibly disappointed by the overall actions of staff on all levels, as well as the lack of treatment for my child. It was heartbreaking enough to have to send my child away for help. This is an emotional and delicate time for any family. What is more heartbreaking, is the lack of promise fulfillment from this facility and how it fails these adolescents. Please, someone tell me how a "treatment team" can determine that a child has no issue after ten days of inpatient treatment and only one counseling session?! A defiant child is not going to act out when they are allowed to color, craft, and watch movies all day every day. I do not believe that one group community meeting where you talk about your goal for the day counts as therapeutic. Where is the work in that? How can you develop and execute a treatment plan when reassigning a patient to therapist twice within a ten-day period and starting from scratch two days before determining a discharge date? It certainly doesn't help when the PRSS staff is too lazy to document incidents that are crucial for treatment and indicative of the behaviors that the child is receiving help for in the first place. The condescending tones towards my husband and myself from the staff were less than desirable, as though we had not already exhausted every outlet within our hands to help our son who has been in outpatient treatment for nearly seven years already. Concerns and reports from the from the school of blatant defiance, fighting, theft, and vandalism mean nothing. Violence towards the family pet was documented that they advise we just get rid of our pet. What a solution, right?! Parents who are desperate to seek help for their children, rebuild their family relationships, and attempt a proactive approach to protect their child from furthering down a path of destruction mean nothing. Because of their discharge documentation, insurance says their hands are tied for six months to get him into another facility. Now, I am told that when he acts out, that I am just to call the police. I have been asked to build a jacket on my child and set him up for America's "Criminal Justice" system. Ironically, their solution to his behavioral issues is to set my son up for the very thing I am seeking help to prevent him from. Parents, I urge you to seek another facility. I realize it is difficult for us in Oklahoma to find proper treatment facilities in state, but trying this facility first will only further delay your attempts to get your child the quality treatment they need and deserve. -10/10 DO NOT RECOMMEND!

I needed help for my son and tried to call Red River Youth Academy for weeks and never got through to anyone. I left. several voicemails but never got a call back.

Very unprofessional

I would recommend this place to a family member if you're wanting to learn how neglect and a lack of structure is for a child. The facility has a high turnover rate so you will see a numerous amount of people each month as an employee. If you work here you will the opportunity to have free food and no breaks. The food consists of over processed material and everything is in a canned product. There are no health benefits from eating this food rather than the small salad provided. This facility has a boy and girl unit between the age of 12-18 years old. The facility could be structured a lot better. The environment inside the facility is run down because Red River Youth Academy does not know how to have a set structure. Everything is disorganized because it results inside the administration facility. If you research more into the company you will see a variety of factors the company continues to struggle with through out the years, such as reaching out to KOCO 6 in 2017, regarding the struggles Red River Youth Academy is having financially. The clients would have school some days and teachers from a public school within Norman would come to the class for maybe four hours. All of the material the clients learn would be transferred back to his or her school when the client is discharged from the facility. Four hours of school is not enough education for a child. Sometimes the teacher would leave because he or she would be upset. The clothing the clients are required to wear are torn or broken down. There are a numerous amount violation structures within the facility such as damages a client could do themselves which are unacknowledged, chemical abuse within some clients which are unacknowledged because new staff is not properly trained and ignore the issue, there is a lack of communication within employees which results in careless mistakes, and neglect due to low staffing at night time, some over crowding because the administration admitted new clients. For example, one day the staff were looking for a bed for the client to sleep in. There was not enough room inside the bedrooms as a result the client had a mattress moved outside in a hallway. When the new shift would arrive on a unit some staff would refuse to take a client outside. The only time the staff does not take a client outside is if it is below 40 degrees. However, It was shocking because sometimes the clients would not have the opportunity to play and release their energy. It is not a surprise when the clients become agitated because they are confined in one environment. Furthermore, the facility also struggled with neglect. At night time there was not enough staff to watch each client. These children struggle with either mental or behavioral issues. Some staff would sleep at night or play on his or her phone and not acknowledge the fact that children are going through a challenging circumstance in their life and should be watched 24/7. This is not a day care, nor is it a facility to treat the children as prisoners but a numerous amount of staff felt this way. There should be a better structure in which these children do not sit in front of a television after school and not have the chance to go outside. These children should have the opportunity to learn more information and go outside and have a structure planned such as reading. Instead, the staff play on his or her phone and have the children sit and watch T.V. There is no set structure, there is a high turn over rate and the clients are there for months because there is no new information for the clients. These are humans and they should have been treated with respect and not as a prisoner. The job becomes stressful when you do not ask questions and do not communicate with other staff. If you just sit there and do not have a authoritative personality the job will be a struggle. Restraints are used on clients IF the client is causing harm to ones self. However, restraints are used continuously on clients who do not follow rules and sometimes cause physical harm. This is the result a poor environment.

I went here when it was called varagon they helped me out allot. They helped me work through my anger . Yes the staff was hard on us but it's not because they don't care it's because if they don't the kids think they can run over the staff. The staff and other people are great

They mistreat these kids. 8-9 girls coming out together for visitation hysterically crying. Being spoken to as prisoners, instead of children that need help. Degraded. Restrained for crazy little things that could easily be solved with constructive criticism. Do not send your child here.

Terrible place. I was going through a rough patch in my teen years back in 2017. I witnessed intense bullying of other patients, most of the girls on my unit were getting away with terrible things that should’ve warranted a hold. My mother AMA’d me after I visited with her and told her girls were violent without repercussions. I was one of the calmest patients yet I was doped up the most out of the girls on my unit, totaling me at 4 dosages a day of mood stabilizers along with a cocktail of other meds that were completely unnecessary. In my two month stay I saw my psychiatrist only a few times, he didn’t address my symptoms, just added more scripts each time.

If I could give zero stars I would. My daughter went there the beginning of this year. We had “family” counseling where the counselor proceeded to just talk about himself. The dr changed meds all the time and at the time of discharge my child was on 9 different prescriptions. The entire time she was there they only concern the staff ever showed was that we were to private insurance and not Medicaid. I guess Medicaid pays them more! We had several incidents of self harm and were not notified for days some times not at all. Then to top it off she was discharged The first week of the month But they sure did bill my insurance till the end of the month! The facility is run down. The website is not up to date. The first visit we went to see our child we find there isn’t a visiting room but the day room of another pod. The food is terrible and does nothing other than make the Children gain weight. Oh and let’s talk about the underwear! Who is stealing the girls panties. I had to repeatedly send more underwear because they kept disappearing. So if you are a parent looking for actual help for you child... keep looking! Red River isn’t that place!