Brat camp - What's Out There?

'To protect and to guide
To help and to heal
To teach by example;
Patience in adversity
Strength to do what is right
Compassion in the face of anger
Respect for others
Joy in life
Love
To walk a good path
Creating our own vision
that the fires we kindle here
May grow to be a light unto the world'

Joshua D Mendenhall, RedCliff student services director, is keen to emphasise that the scheme works because it encourages the teenagers to take part in improving their situation. 'The wonderful changes that occur here are the result of a partnership between the student, the wilderness, the parents, the programme, and perhaps, something greater then us all,' Mendenhall says. 'When all is said and done, the most we can do is simply create a place where the children can choose a new path.'

The idea for the organisation came from a group of professors at Brigham Young University who were doing research into cultural anthropology in the late 1960s and trying to replicate the implements and lifestyles of indigenous peoples.

As a side effect, the professors noticed there were many psychologically cathartic benefits from spending a long time in the wilderness. It was a short step from this to the idea that perhaps people with genuine mental/emotional disorders might benefit from living in a natural setting for an extended period. Once a scheme to do this started, the project managers noticed that adolescents achieved the most long-term changes.

RedCliff Ascent was established over the next couple of decades, as were other similar projects throughout America. Now, RedCliff deals with about 300 teenagers each year, mainly from the US, although people also come from Scotland, England, Sweden, Canada, The Bahamas, Mexico and Brazil.

'We have about an 85% success rate of teenagers not going back to the ways they had before the camp,' Mendenhall says. 'Conventional treatment – group homes, psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitation centres – has about a 15% success rate, and takes years as opposed to months.'