The Heritage Community, Provo | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Did little to nothing about self harm whilst I was there. Almost the entirety of my home was self harming, sharing the tools they used to do so, and talking about it out in the open. The staff waited around 2 weeks before calling a meeting and doing something about it. Also, they don’t seem to acknowledge eating disorders at all. When I voiced my concerns to the home manager about how they aren’t doing anything about eating disorders and how it was triggering me, they just told me this wasn’t an eating disorder clinic. I ended up relapsing whilst I was there and they didn’t care or do anything when myself and others were barely eating. Only one of the staff members took me seriously when I was at my breaking point about it, but still not much was done besides there being a small meeting which had no outcome. I had a terrible time here and my first therapist would invalidate me up until I was able to switch therapists which took a month or so. The nursing clinic is terrible and they tell you to drink water for any issue you are having health wise. Some of the staff members act as though they are professionals when it comes to mental health and treat you as though they know more about your own issues and struggles than you do. I felt invalidated and trapped during my time here. I was unable to recover from the mental trauma this place caused me up until many months later, and when I first got back I had a meltdown and contemplated suicide for a bit. I was no longer afraid of dying and was stuck in a dissociative haze. My mental health was not good before I went here, but when I came out I had more issues than I previously did beforehand. This place is better than wilderness programs and other treatment facilities, but I still don’t recommend it unless your child really needs it. Please do not send your child to one of these facilities just because they are misbehaving. This is not a solution and is likely to make your child resent and distance themselves from you.

Went to heritage for 7 months and ‘graduated’ the program in 2017. There is a lot I could put about my experience but the major thing I would like to put is for other family members, parents, or guardians that are looking to seek long term help with their child or whoever.

I did very well in the program and made the best of it for myself and enjoyed my time, made amazing memories and friends I still talk to this day. The downside to any treatment center/ therapy really of any kind is if all parties are not involved. Heritage was very good at working with the individual and the group in order to help unlearn trauma or to learn or relearn ways to cope and grow and progress. My issue was solely with my parents when I got back home.

I don’t blame my parents for what happened, though I wish they would have understood what I’m trying to help others be aware of. At heritage I was able to prove myself to be understood, obedient, disciplined, happy and healthy. When I was put back into the same family dysfunction, it all crumbled again like we hadn’t just gone through 7 months of therapy and counseling. The biggest takeaway is to DO THE WORK. That’s a message for the adults and family members of the “identified patient.” If you don’t follow through with the work you need to do for your child, your child is going to break again under the dysfunction that broke them in the first place.

I’m sad to say I had 5 friends I kept in touch with after heritage. Derrik, Emilio, David, Christian and CeeJay. 4 went back to drugs within a year. And David and I who never had done drugs before the program got into drugs to cope with the reality that life wasn’t what we thought it was being made out to be by unrealistic standards set by programs such as heritage. There’s nothing wrong with the program, perse. The issue is the system the client came from and wasn’t able to be healed, is the same system the client goes back to and it almost always fails.

DO YOUR OWN WORK PARENTS.

For years I have stayed silent about the treatment I endured at Heritage School/Treatment Center located in Utah County on the border of Provo & Orem. I was sent there by the State Of Illinois when I was 13 years old being separated from my brother and sister. My arrival there was confusing and frustrating due to the fact I was just ripped away from my siblings. I was closed off toward any type of treatment offered by the program. I had 3 different therapist during my stay there , and I appreciate them all. For years I ran away and caused so much drama “I thought they’d give up on me”. I went through so much abuse as a child that I couldn’t trust anymore or anyone. Eventually I was kicked out of Heritage and was sent to a all boys school in Iowa. I eventually Graduated from high school a day there shortly after landed in Prison. Much of my adult life I was a number list in some prison somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I have now put all that behind d me I’m a father of 6 amazing kids, and I’m a husband to someone I love. I wish I could have gotten the picture back when everyone was trying to teach me back then. So many years I chose to be bitter or put on an image or personna that really wasn’t whom I truly intended to be. Hating the world only licks you away from the you we really are deep inside. I could have stopped being a victim and chose to live my life. I look at my kids every day and thank God I allowed myself to break the chain and strangely I remember all those groups and individual therapy sessions “the ones my therapist didn’t think I got”and it’s because of their generosity I was finally able to change my life. We are ready when we are ready “just don’t let it be when it’s to late”.