"Dear Dave,
If there are any parents going through what Mark and I have these past two weeks, I wish you would pass along our testimonial regarding the service you and Robyn have given us.
Two weeks ago today, our son bolted from our home when he knew he was going to a 28 day inpatient drug rehab facility in our state. That is when our feelings were confirmed that he needed more than a 12- step program. He had already been in intensive out-patient services. He could tell you everything that every drug did to every organ of his body, but that didn't stop him from relapsing the day he graduated from the program. More of the same training was not what he needed. That is when we remembered what his psychologist told us 18 months ago, that at some point we should consider one of the successful residential treatment facilities in Utah. Two weeks ago we began an intensive search for such a program for our son.
That night, Eagle Ranch Academy was the first facility to pop up on my Google list. After reviewing their web site, I went on to investigate others but kept coming back to that one. In the Eagle Ranch home page there was a box in which one could explain the nature of the child's problems. I explained the panic that I felt that night as our son had been gone all day, it was getting late and we were suppose to go to the drug rehab place the next morning. I went on to explain some of his risky behaviors and what we had done to help him.
I was surprised when I got a call from Robyn a short while later. She seemed genuinely concerned that our son had not come home yet. She was calling to see how she could help. She answered my questions about Eagle Ranch and residential treatment facilities in general. Over the next two weeks she was available to me day and night as we worked through our decision regarding a program for our son. She was not trying to sell us something but was very supportive of our concern for our son. By the end of two weeks, we felt she was a very good friend. She had a lot of experience working with youth at risk and was very understanding of what we were going through. She also offered us hope when our situation seemed so desperate. She was a great source of information and never too busy to help us any time we called. She followed up with calls to us several times a day as we worked on strategies for how to get our son to ERA once we made the choice.
Dave Arslanian, Admissions director was fabulous, too! He was also available to answer our questions and give reassurance 24 hours a day. We were skeptical at first about the staff, program and facility, but one by one, he resolved each concern. He was patient, sincere and never pushy. After a number of phone visits, we felt we knew Dave pretty well and felt we could trust him. Dave patiently went through the admission forms with us over the phone several times. We could call him any time and he always was available to us. He helped us work out a way to get our son to ERA and ended up personally retrieving him from the airport and taking him to ERA. He even bought our son a meal on the way. All of the references he gave us were families who had or have a child at ERA. Each of them commented on the personal sacrifices that Dave and Paul Arslanian make for the youth at ERA. Without exception they all commented on the love you feel at ERA. They said things like, "they are too good to be real but they are!" and "they will love your child as if he was their own". At a crucial time in our lives, we benefited from that love and support that Dave gave us and our son.
It has only been two days since our son arrived at ERA. We can honestly say this has been the most difficult choice and hardest thing we have ever had to do in 34 years of marriage. Even though we were convinced our son's life was at risk if he stayed home, it was a huge leap of faith to send him to people we hadn't met and to a place we hadn't seen. In our situation we felt things had reached a crisis and we didn't have the luxury of going out to visit the place. But to any other parent out there that is considering a residential treatment facility for their troubled teen, I would like to say that Robyn and Dave are incredible people in whom you can trust. They are honest and sincere. They have given us amazing support during a horrible challenge."
Janene and Mark