Hope Renews | When your kids are in trouble, you feel like you’re all alone. Hope Renews is here to help.

About Us

Hope Renews was founded by parents of teens with severe emotional distress in residential treatment programs. Having had children in these programs we learned firsthand two things. First, that this kind of intensive intervention can be life saving. And second, we learned that it comes with a substantial price tag.

It has been our belief that this kind of care should not be the exclusive province of the wealthy. So we created a foundation to specifically address financial issues – through loans and grants directly to families, through the dissemination of information of resources that might be available to help pay for treatment, and through a forum of supportive voices to connect families facing this challenge.

Hope Renews has survived the critical first five years in operation. While our grant and loan program is focused on just one program, Vista Adolescent Treatment Center, the information in this website should be of use to the much broader universe of families struggling to pay for a child in treatment. More...

How Much Is Treatment?

There is no other way to say it: residential treatment is expensive. Parents have to navigate a maze of funding options that are confusing and frustrating.

We have been through it. We hope we can make your job easier by sharing our experiences. More...

How Do I Pay for It?

Paying for treatment is a challenge to low- and middle-income families. But it is not impossible.

It takes a parent that is educated, dedicated, and thinks outside the box. It will require planning, locating resources, talking to programs, juggling tasks, all while you are trying to take care of your family. But if you approach this fight, armed with knowledge and support, you are more likely to get your child the help he needs. More...

Welcome to our Website!

Take A Look Around

We are pleased to finally have our new website online. Our hope is that this will become a helpful community to anyone interested in kids and families in residential treatment.

Please Join Us

To do so, simply create an account, login and let us know what you think.

Go to the Community Forum and introduce yourself. It's a place for frank discussions with other parents of children in treatment.

We've Got Issues

Warner's new book says the problem is all in our heads

2/26/2101

We all know the truth. Doctors prescribe too many drugs for our children. Big Pharma is pushing antidepressants on our kids. Our schools are fulled of overmedicated zombies.

Maybe not. In her new book, "We've Got Issues: Children and Parents in the Age of Medication," Judith Warner makes the argument that our kids don't get medicated often enough. And it's making waves.

More...

Happiness is Heart Healthy

Positive People Have Less Heart Disease

By Salyann Boyles for WebMD.com, 2/17/2010

This is good news for all you cockeyed optimists. Here is an article about how your happiness affects your heart. It turns out being cheery leads to less heart disease.

"After accounting for known heart disease risk factors, the researchers found that the happiest people were 22% less likely to develop heart disease over the 10 years of follow-up than people who fell in the middle of the negative-positive emotion scale.

People with the most negative emotions had the highest risk for heart disease and people who scored highest for happiness had the lowest risk.

This observed protection persisted even when naturally happy people were experiencing transient depressive symptoms."

What do they recommend for all the sour-pusses among us?

More...

How to Fight Your Insurance Co.

Perseverance Pays

From the New York Times, 2/5/2010

In this New York Times column, Walecia Konrad explains that tenacity and persistence pay off, when appealing a rejected claim from a health insurer.

A variety of things can prompt a claims denial. It might be a simple clerical error, like an incorrect address, or a doctor’s use of the wrong diagnostic or treatment code for your treatment. Then there are the more serious causes — as when a treatment is specifically excluded from your policy…. Other frequently denied claims involve emergency room visits, especially those at out-of-network hospitals and clinics.

Read the full story, “Fighting Denied Claims Requires Perseverance."

New Mental Health Rules Announced

Easier to Obtain Treatment

from New York Times, January 29, 2010

Great news for parents who need health insurance to cover their child's treatment costs.

In a nutshell, the rules "significantly expand the rights of people with mental illness, much of which goes untreated because of insurance restrictions."

Here is an article in the New York Times about the new mental health parity regulations.

For a more in-depth discussion of the new rules, check out this great video from CNN, with Dr. David Shern, president and CEO of Mental Health America. More...

A Parent's Nightmare

Even Non-Treatment Moms Face Challenges

by JOHNSON, Member

Early Sunday at about 4:30 AM, I settled down with a nice cup of coffee and a warm comfy sofa. I like to wake up early, before my husband and three sons, so I can have a little quiet time for myself.

I happened to notice my 19-year-old son’s cell phone. Being the curious mother that I am, I read his text messages.

To my horror, I realized that my son was dealing drugs.

More...

Marshalling Your Anger

Seeking residential care is depressing but that sadness can be turned into a powerful force that is useful in finding funds to pay program costs.

Buried under the disappointment of having a child in treatment lurks some real anger at your kid for making you take this drastic step. You're angry for lots of reasons -- the sense of parental failure, the embarrassment of facing friends and family, and not least, the child's behavior that precipitated the need for residential care. One can be defeated by the sadness or galvanized by the anger.

Teen Depression Rises 500%

Youth now have more mental health issues

By Hope Renews

As if teen depression isn't depressing enough, today's teen depression is worse than depression in the Great Depression. (Is your head spinning yet?)

The Associated Press reports on a new study that found that "five times as many high school and college students are dealing with anxiety and other mental health issues as youth of the same age who were studied in the late 1930's." More...

The Parents' Role

By Cathy Gilson, President

Putting your child in residential treatment is a drastic decision. Supporting her through treatment is no easier.

Our kids go through a wrenching experience. Therapists use every trick in the book to coax the emerging adult from the throes of the child’s adolescent impulses. If you’ve ever sat in on a group therapy session you know what I mean.

I am still wrestling with changing my behavior to support my
own children’s growth and independence. And occasionally
therapists have pointed out how my good intentions can get in the way of the
process.

Of course they are right. I hate it but its true. More...

Spin Cycle

by Cathy Gilson, President

“Cycle of recovery” can be an optimistic phrase, if one focuses on the recovery. But that word, “cycle” tells the real story.

For many of us and our children, actual “recovery” per se is never going to happen. Many of the conditions that lead a child to treatment can’t be fully cured. Addictions will always tempt; mental illness can be a lapsed pill away; and self harm is an easy way to allay the emotional turbulence that is always a part of living. How should one let them feel their own way as young adults? More...