Meridian Mentoring

My 13 year old boy spent 6 months at Meridian in 2018. It was an incredibly difficult choice but I look back every day with gratitude since we made the decision. Tyler and team did an amazing job with establishing skills and habits for my son and his counselor Amy really helped us learn to communicate better and clearer while also gaining a better understanding of how he thought through things and why certain behaviors existed. It’s been an amazing two years since he’s been home. It’s not perfect, but it’s a night and day difference. Our relationship is better and I would recommend meridian to anyone!

We sent our son almost 1 1/2 years ago. He was hanging out with the wrong group of kids and starting to do things that we did not approve of. Found out on a Friday and had him on a plane that Sunday. Found Meridian via online and had talked with different places. Once our son got to the location and we were able to talk with him he was doing good. Fast forward he did great there and learned a lot. Very happy with the staff and the way they took care of our child. He came home and we had set rules and he has been doing great. There have been a few bumps, but they said that would happen. He stays in contact with several of the staff members. He even asked if he could go back and stay for a few weeks. Tyler was good with it and our son was able to talk with the kids about his experience. He is a Junior in HS ant plays Varsity basketball and doing great. I would recommend this facility to anyone.

Pros: -The other kids there were really chill -Good therapy services -70-80% of the staff are extremely exceptional individuals who I admire to this day. -Good schooling The following cons I list were the ones that existed while I was in this program. If they still persisted to this day I would have for sure given this place a 1 star rating. However I have noticed a lot of changes since I left for the better. Most of the bad employees are gone, they seem to be doing much more activities, the drama since has greatly been reduced and the people renowned for giving zeros are almost all gone. Overall they seemed to get rid of the toxic environment that I had to suffer through so for that I applaud them. Cons: -Everyday is the exact same and while some could see this sense of routine being a good thing it’s not because it means staying cooped up in a house all day with little physical/mental stimulation to the point it drives you crazy after a few months. There were only three occasions out of my six month stay where we did something actually fun and interesting. The rest of the times we went out It was just to do work for Tyler’s side business. -a lot of drama -Some of the staff is extremely young and were practically the same age as me -The bad 20-30% of the staff are individuals who display extensive favoritism towards certain individuals while unfairly treating others and feel the need to exert the little power they have in life to the fullest extent. One staff member even violently pulled a boy by his hair to get him out of his bed while he was just simply refusing to get out. -They take snacks away as punishment and say there a privilege -You have to portion size the little meals you have, literally we could only have a cup of milk a day -The owner threatens to tell parents to keep you longer for small disciplinary issues or just whenever he’s in a bad mood. Even if the parents don’t care very much, as they didn’t send them there for not portion sizing their syrup, he will try to convince them it’s some bigger issue and the child shouldn’t come home -the doc system, system of points needed to move up through the program, is so bad. Docs and even zeros, which makes it so kids cant leave or move up for another week, are given to several almost everyday whenever the staff is in a bad mood or for quite innocent actions like eating more then one cup of cereal when nobody is looking because you’re really hungry.

This just is group home working farm. We were told 1)Therapeutic Boarding School2) No Naughty Boys 3. Superior Programming and Academics 4) Christian Faith Support 5) Nurturing Environment with Tyler present, and EMDR counseling. What I have learned is A Meridian is not Therapeutic, no soothing environment, no music to self sooth and no tv, no teen advisors with behavioral health degree after hours to console and comfort kids, no in house counselors, I’m still not sure there is an RN? How is that safe or therapeutic? B) Meridian is severely restricted and restraining. C) Kids are locked to their desks during school, kids are four time felons, drop outs, violent defiant , loud disruptive and confrontational, overwhelmed, E) I have confirmed by psychiatrist and counselors this is not Nurturing healing or therapeutic- this is a group home sold to us as something very different.

They saved my life I had legal problems an they changed my life.