Is School Enough? The Power of Early Intervention and Structured Treatment for Struggling Teens

In this episode of the Turning Wind Podcast, host Kevin Zundl discusses a critical topic for parents as the new school year approaches: when is school structure alone enough, and when is it time to consider more comprehensive treatment for your struggling teen? Joined by Carl Basden and Enoch Stump from Turning Winds, they explore the importance of early intervention and how school structure might provide temporary relief but often fails to address the deeper issues teens face.

From identifying behavioral trends to understanding when additional mental health resources are necessary, this episode offers valuable insights for parents navigating these difficult decisions. Kevin also emphasizes the need for parents to set clear markers for improvement and assess whether their current strategies are genuinely helping their teens develop the skills they need for long-term success.

To learn more about Turning Winds, visit turningwinds.com or call 800-845-1380.

Transcript

Welcome to the Turning Wind Podcast. My name is Kevin Zundl.

Turning Winds has a full continuum of care to provide the critical support clinically and academically for struggling teens.  Today, I sit down with Carl Baisden and Enoch Stump from the program.  Summer is coming to an end. And this is a time of transition for many parents. It's time to determine what to do next for their teen who really isn't doing well. 

And they don't often know what to do. And if it's time to make a real decision to get treatment.  So this is, this is a common issue that our families deal with, whether it be starting school or when do I, when does my kid cross the line where I have, where they need additional support that I can provide at the home.

And so we see that in lots of different levels in their families. I think one of the ways we, we talk to our families about is we look for them to set markers about behavior and about, you know, the kind of structures, what they need and what's the trend line of how that's going. And so as you're doing that, and as you're establishing. 

Will school starting and having more access to friends or, or potentially further away from home? Will that potentially help some of these behavioral markers that we're struggling with, that additional support or structure? Or will then being pulled in all the different directions start leaning down, you know, more challenging, the challenging road that's hard to pull back on?

Oftentimes we have semesters at school and it's, it's far easier when you're done with the summer to transition directly into a consistent process with that support. And they can start right on time and on track with turning wins,  as opposed to having to pull the mid school year and then deal with maybe, you know, classes that never got finished or half, half done, and they can just start the semester fresh with turning wins. 

But you're looking for just the trend line, what, what trend is happening and when do I need to say. This is not, these, these interventions we're making are not getting the shit back on trail. I would say that as a general rule, as I contemplate this, most of the time, earlier intervention is always better. 

Right? Like,  that, it's not like, hey, once the wheels come off, then we can just take our time and wait  until it's convenient. If the wheels are off, they're off. And early intervention is better than late intervention.  I think if I was speaking to a parent that was trying to make a difficult decision about sending their child to treatment versus starting school,  I think for me, I, I, I just keep thinking of love and logic,  like some of the foster clients who's, who's kind of, uh, he's a, uh, child and adolescent psychiatrist that runs our current workshops. 

The love and logic, uh, books that he wrote are, are incredible. And what they teach is you've got to separate The emotional investment connection we have with our kids sometimes prevents us from making the most logical choices and choices that are intellectually sound on behalf of our kids.  And so the encouragement I would give a parent is you've got some questions to ask.

Like, if my kid goes back to school, will the structure help?  All right, I want the answer to that to be yes, for sure. Do I have evidence in my experience with my kid that says, Yes, When I present him with opportunities, more structure, more support, does that work? Does he respond well? Do I think he's going to respond well?

And if the answer to that question is yes, I would say try it.  Have him go to school, try it. But you're, you're, you're really doing a disservice to yourself as a parent and to the kid if you're not setting concrete lines or limits for yourself that address Okay. What, how will I know if it's working? How will I know what are the markers of improvement that I'm going to be looking for, how am I going to assess the effectiveness of this added structure and routine and the kid's life to determine whether or not it's working? 

Remember at mass, the structure is just going to bring some stability to me. It doesn't actually help me change having, uh, an extra person in my classroom or having a, uh, a schedule that I have to follow that doesn't help me, uh, learn new concepts and internalize new concepts for me and help it to become a healthy, healthy individual or a better equipped individual.

So the behavior might diminish. So, but did, did the kid develop the skills and the tools necessary to combat life?  By going to school or did school just like provide some temporary relief to the family dynamic? Because now I've got this added structure and these people that are taking care of my kids for eight hours a day. 

And so it really is tough. I don't envy any parent in this position, this time of the year, trying to decide whether or not to have my kid go back to school.  I would say if there is genuine hope rooted in evidence and experiences that you have as a parent that says. This structure is going to help and make a significant difference.

I would then challenge the parents to say, Okay, what mental health resources are you putting in place? Uh, in, in addition to the structure to make sure that the real problems  are being addressed. The real concerns are being addressed instead of hidden or being distracted from those problems with routine and structure. 

And so routine and structure is helpful, but it's never a solution. It won't actually get the kids what they need to develop. Um, and so school itself would be an incomplete solution, families. They would have to do school plus services, some other wraparound services to help that get, to grow and address the struggles of marriage.

I  mean, what I like about that is  you have to define what that rock bottom is for you, you start to develop a tolerance for bad behavior, you know, it's like the first time there's a run in with the cops, you're like, Whoa, this is a big the fifth time it's this part of life. At that point, but knowing that, okay, you look to your point, looking at that trajectory and going, how much worse do we really want it to be before we do something like picture that moment in your head and go, is that really, really where, where we want to go?

And Kevin, that's a good point. Cause one of our, a lot of our families do is give kids every chance they can and reasonably. So, and what we find is we get a lot of kids at 17 and a half. That if we would have got them at 14, when the wheels started turning off, that opportunity to take advantage of treatment looks completely different when you intervene, like Pearl said, soon and early, then that kid hasn't, you know, reinforced those habits and those skills with two or three years of adolescence, they have the opportunity to go off track, make the adjustments and disaccessorate is considerably different when you intervene.

Families act sooner. It's harder. It's harder when you're younger, it's harder if there's not a long track record, but the ability to be successful when you start to see it go in that direction, uh, is  different for sure. And, and at 17 and a half, uh, you have one last shot, uh, sometimes before they're, you know, outside of the home and 18 and lots of their adult life.

And so, um,  yeah, early interventions helpful.  And really just having parents  reframe in their mind, what  residential treatment is, that it is impactful.  Clinical treatment. You're not sending them away somewhere. This isn't punitive.  It's something that's required. It's not going to fix itself because it's clinical treatment.

It sounds by definition, it's not going to fix itself on its own.  Yeah. Yeah. And school, unfortunately we'll fix it either. Uh, oftentimes school, when I don't have resolution to the real challenges I'm experiencing, when I don't have tools, skills, and solutions for those things. Going back to school can actually exacerbate  problems and make it even worse.

And so it is, it's just, when you look at school, if I've got a kid that has behavior problems or mental health, they've got anxiety, they're struggling with depression, school itself on its own isn't going to fix that.  The structure might contain it. It might contain it even better than the whole thing.

The structure may contain it a little bit better,  but when I think of what we're trying to accomplish with our kids, like we're trying to, to, to create adult children that can go out into the world and make it, you know, and so if I find a container from my kid and, and things go down, what happens when the containers,  and so turning lens, we don't, don't look at ourselves as a container with some structure.

It's like, no, we're here to give tools and skills and to empower individuals to self manage. To be ready to go out into the world. School doesn't teach you that. Um, school is very focused on, uh, on educational concepts. And even with the additional support, if my kiddos got an IEP, they're just giving me the information a little bit differently, they're not actually addressing  the real problems.

And sometimes people can't address their real problems while they're still in their real normal environment.  So if you're listening to this, I hope it gives you a new perspective on your situation. I invite you to listen to the many other episodes as I continue to have conversations with the Turning Winds staff and their alumni.

I also highly encourage you to reach out to Turning Winds at 800 845 1380 if you suspect that this is something that could help  or visit them at  their website at www. turningwinds.com.