By STAN MADDUX Indiana Correspondent CARMEL, Ind. — A new program aimed at helping mentally troubled teenagers by having them spend a summer on a farm or ranch is about to begin – a host family with a ranch outside Denver, Colo., has been lined up, while talks are ongoing with potential host families in Indiana on farms outside Angola and Bloomington. The goal is to begin June 1 and secure 5-10 host families for the upcoming summer, said Brose McVey, founder of Ben’s Ranch Foundation, based in Carmel just outside Indianapolis, where he resides.
“It’s something we hope the farm community will embrace and see it as a chance to make a difference,” said McVey.
The foundation is named after his son, Ben, helped tremendously from an 18-month stay at a mustang ranch in Wyoming. At 14, he said Ben began to experience serious emotional difficulties after entering high school and later was diagnosed as bipolar.
Transferring him to a private school appeared to help for a while but Ben regressed and later, because of his love for horses, they visited a ranch in Wyoming where his favorite mare had roots. Following Ben’s junior year, arrangements were made with the third- and fourth-generation ranchers for him to stay there as an experiment, where he lived in a one-room shack with no running water and heat from a space heater and an old Franklin stove.
McVey said his son appeared to have turned the corner after staying there – but in 2015, died at age 24 from an accidental overdose of the powerful painkiller fentanyl. Ben was out with several individuals and McVey feels the young man didn’t know it was fentanyl that he was taking.
He said the Ben’s Ranch Foundation program was created from parts of several different mental health treatment programs, but unique to Ben’s Ranch is the experience of a natural family and work setting on farms and ranches without the heavy clinical intervention at a typical treatment setting. The cost is also no more than $500 a month during their stay – or less, depending on income.
“It helps to remove the stigma and the costs and the anxieties that come with these more medical-type residential facilities,” he said.
McVey said eligible for the program are teenagers still early in their struggles before their condition becomes serious enough to require a more medically-oriented therapeutic approach.
Arrangements will be made for teenagers during their stay to visit with their mental health professional on the telephone or face-to-face through Skype or another internet-based program.
On-site visits from a local counselor will be allowed depending on need, he said. “We’re trying to create yet another alternative path for some families and kids, and hopefully give them a bump in the right direction at a young age when they’re still developing, and so forth,” said McVey. Ideally, he said stays will be for 8-10 weeks starting June 1 but can be longer depending on need. He said teens viewed as high risk for violence and substance abuse are not eligible, but eventually the foundation might try to broaden its reach.
“We’re not trying to be everything for everybody. What we’re trying to do is help our huge category of kids who right now don’t have a lot of programming options,” McVey said.
He’s looking to provide the same opportunity in the fall for teens struggling in school, with legal permission not to be in the classroom during that time – and as the foundation grows, to serve children throughout the country.
McVey said Ben’s self-esteem and attitude improved noticeably from what he achieved in the work he was doing at the ranch, on down to the wildlife and other aspects of nature he got to experience up-close. Ben went on to earn his high school diploma and enrolled in a community college, where he had his own apartment prior to his death.
“It was very successful and we’re just hoping to do it for other kids,” said his father.
The foundation can be reached at 317-258-1007 or info@bensranch.org |
