Apologies to our readers for not getting this message out earlier. At this time (October 2015) we understand that the use of the name "Family Support Collaborative" (FSC) has been diminished because only one property for private clients, Mountain Valley Treatment Center, remains under the ownership and/or leadership of Becket Family Services (BFS) and the prior management team of FSC. (Publicly supported programs historically operated by BFS are still operating as usual and are not affected by the changes we report here.)
We are using the Index Explanations area for the Family Support Collaborative (FSC) because the identity of this group and its connections can be a source of confusion. We wanted to address that confusion apart from program reviews. Usually when we enter programs into the Explanations area we do not plan to include them in our search, review and rate system, but in this case we do. FSC and its affiliated programs will be included in that system where appropriate, and for most of them that is appropriate. Family Support Collaborative is a creation of Becket Family of Services, an organization of solid reputation providing publicly funded social and mental health services, mostly for children and teens, and mostly in the New England States.
Oliverian (previously called "The Oliverian School") was created by the same people who are the principal players at Becket and FSC; past ownership is not clear to us, but in any case it has been or is being spun off all connections with Becket and FSC. But this was the initial foray into private pay services for Becket. Oliverian describes itself, accurately, we think, as an "alternative boarding high school." Sometime after Oliverian was founded, the name "Family Support Collaborative" was introduced as the folks at Becket made further inroads into private services. For a time the Oliverian name would appear as part of FSC, but now appears to be totally independent of both FSC and Becket.
The next venture was Mountain Valley Treatment Center (MVTC), clearly part of FSC. It was created on land carved out of the Oliverian property. Then the same people acquired the rights to the defunct Penikese Island School, to reopen it under the name Penikese as a private substance abuse treatment program for adolescent boys. Getting that licensed in Massachusetts became much more of a marathon than a sprint. As a result, the staff hired to run Penikese was installed at what was then called the Baker Valley Treatment Center, a Becket property in Warren, New Hampshire. At the time this was said to be a temporary measure pending the opening of Penikese. At that time, the stated intention was for Baker Valley Treatment Center to remain open as a program for young adults when the under 18 residents were re-located to Penikese. But instead, that became "Baker House," an expansion facility for MVTC, and is currently operated currently as part of MVTC.
FSC also acquired property and rights to the defunct Aspen wilderness program and reopened it as Adirondack Peak Experiences (APEX). FSC describes itself as collaborative of non-profit programs that need not be of common ownership as part of their group. This endeavor was unsuccessful and APEX has closed.
McLean Hospital sometimes appears as part of FSC, and that is clearly not in common ownership with the original FSC programs. We think -- but are uncertain in the mystery surrounding these programs -- that MVTC, APEX, and Penikese are actually owned by Becket and managed by the team shown on the FSC website. We think other programs associated with FSC are independent and collaborate in some ways that simply are not clear to us.
To be clear, we do not think that the role of Becket Family of Services is a bad thing and we don't think these unusual relationships in general are a bad thing. We think the lack of explanation of it on the web is odd but not necessarily reason for concern. We would prefer greater transparency but that is our problem not theirs and need not become the readers' problem. So here it is in bullet form:
- Adirondack Peak Experiences (APEX) -- (Closed) Wilderness program on the site of the former Adirondack Leadership Expeditions, that appears to be owned by Becket Family of Services and is clearly managed under the auspices of the leadership team at FSC.
- Baker Valley Treatment Center -- This is currently the second campus of Mountain Valley Treatment Center, and is known as under the name Baker House.
- Baker House -- Renaming of Baker Valley Treatment Center as expansion space for Mountain Valley Treatment Center.
- Becket Family of Services -- Parent organization to FSC.
- McLean Hospital -- A well established psychiatric hospital now (June 2014) indicating some kind of affiliation with FSC. Nature of the affiliation is not clear.
- Mountain Valley Treatment Center -- Search Post (for members only) -- Treatment program created by FSC for teens with Anxiety disorders.
- Ocean Classroom This is an independently owned and operated program that is or was affiliated with FSC. As the name implies it involves a classroom at sea. We believe the affiliation has dissolved.
- Oliverian (previously known as "The Oliverian School" -- This is a self described "alternative boarding high school" that was founded under direction of people at Becket and was part of Family Support Collaborative when the latter was founded. It has since been spun off and either has no remaining affiliation or the last remaining affiliations are being undone.
- Penikese -- This is a start-up substance abuse treatment program for adolescent boys on Penikese Island near Cape Cod. This is the site of the former Penikese Island School, which closed. While waiting for Penikese to open, the participants in this program were at Baker Valley Treatment Center in New Hampshire participating in the same programming that is planned for Penikese. We currently understand that Penikese is now operated by a separate corporation and is no longer affiliated with FSC or Becket.
We repeat that these programs will be fully included in our search, review, and rate system.
Official Website of Family Support Collaborative
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Last update October 7, 2015