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More About Sue Scheff™
- Sue Scheff™'s Personal Website, featuring a collection of news articles, press releases, and podcasts, as well as Sue's personal blog, "At Wit's End."
- Sue Scheff&trade's P.U.R.E. Blog
- Sue Scheff™'s Resource on Teenage Depression
Teenage depression is a frightening illness affecting millions of our children every year. Often misunderstood, depressed teens are at risk and calling for help! Sue Scheff provides information on methods for understanding this epidemic as well as tackling it while keeping your family together. - Sue Scheff™ on Teenage Pregnancy
For many parents, a pregnant teenage daughter is the worst-case scenario. Teen pregnancy rates in the United States rose in 2007 for the first time in a decade. What can you do as a parent to protect your daughter from making the wrong decisions? Sue Scheff also offers information and guidance for parents of teens who have already become pregnant, and families looking for help dealing with the consequences. - "Wit's End!"
. Information about “Wit's End!: A Parent's True Story and Helpful Resources” by P.U.R.E.™'s Sue Scheff™. - Troubled & Running
While most teens who run away come back within 24 hours, there are too many who never do. Troubled and confused, these teens believe life on their own will be better than what they deal with at home and at school. Fortunately, there are numerous warning signs that your troubled teen might be at risk. Sue Scheff offers some helpful resources for parents looking to prevent teenage runaways. - Wrapped Up in the Web
The Internet is a key to life in the 21st century, and our children are wrapped up in the web. Though there are more benefits to life online, many risks lie within the message boards, Myspace profiles, and chatrooms. Sue Scheff™ believes parents should be well informed on the technical details of these hot spots, and ready to keep their kids safe. - Official P.U.R.E.™ Homepage Sue Scheff's Parent's Universal Resource Expert's strives to educate parents and keep families together, even through the most difficult of times.
- A Parent's True Story
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Pre Order "Wit's End!"
Sue Scheff's "Wit's End!" will be released in July 2008, and is available for pre-order now through HCI Books. Reserve your copy today!VIDEO: Sue Scheff on "Wit's End!"
In anticipation of "Wit's End"'s release, Sue Scheff speaks on the experiences that lead her to writing the book.
"Wit's End!": Official Description from HCI Books
"Wit's End is the shockingly gripping story of parenting a troubled teen and how the author turned her mistakes -- and her relationship with her daughter -- around. This highly practical and prescriptive book includes all of the advice that the author now offers other parents who are at wit's end through her nationally recognized organization, Parent's Universal Resource Experts (P.U.R.E.). A much-needed guide to help parents navigate the choices and methods available to them and their child, this book also serves as a cautionary tale that will help parents empower themselves -– and their children -– toward healing. Wit's End is an action plan for parents to learn how to be active and empowered participants in their child's therapy.
As a single mother, Scheff offered her daughter Ashlyn gymnastics courses and the finest and most exclusive private schools -- striving to make up for a fatherless household. But when her beloved child became a teenager, everything changed.
Ashlyn embraced disturbing beliefs and behavior, made friends with a strange and maladjusted group at school, and refused to abide by rules. At times, Scheff believed her daughter would harm herself or others, if she didn't seek professional help for her daughter. In desperation, Scheff turned to a residential treatment facility to instill discipline into her daughter while providing her with therapy and structure. The exact opposite turned out to be the case. After spending thousands of dollars and seeing troubling behavior in her child, she heard chilling stories of Ashlyn and classmates being kept in inhumane conditions, as well as of beatings, sexual abuse, forced starvation, neglect, and suicide. The daughter she had turned over to be helped by the residential treatment facility returned broken, depressed, and suicidal.
As Scheff struggled to find justice while fighting off lawsuits from the very institution that damaged Ashlyn, she found the strength and determination to found P.U.R.E. (Parent's Universal Resource Experts, Inc.), an advocacy group that draws parents together and helps them find ways to protect their children from destructive influences, educating them about the issues their particular child and family faces and creating a safe environment to revive familial bonds. Using the same criteria P.U.R.E. uses to research residential treatment centers around the world, Wit's End, provides positive, prescriptive help for families who want only to put their children on the road to a safe, healthy, happy, and independent adulthood.
A chilling and fascinating journey into a damaged family and its path toward renewal, his cautionary tale, coupled with advice the author learned "the hard way" shows how one woman and her daughter found common ground again by standing up to the system and listening to their shared instincts and fought for safe alternatives for themselves and began to heal -- an example that every family struggling with trauma can relate to."
About the Author, Sue Scheff
Sue Scheff™ is the founder of Parent's Universal Resource Experts, an organization dedicated to helping parents of adolescents and teens who are at their Wits End. Through P.U.R.E.™'s many services, parents can find other parents who are dealing with the same problems, educate themselves with the help of experts in the field, and find help in placing their children in alternative learning programs.
Ms. Scheff knows all too well the desperation parents feel when their troubled teen falls out of their control. When her daughter, Ashlyn, became too much for her to handle, she found an alternative educational institution with help from an organization called World Wide Association Of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS) where Ashlyn was abused and fell seriously ill. After removing her from the program, Sue realized that she must make positive changes from the negative experiences. WWASPS took Ms. Scheff to court and after a long, trying battle, Ms. Scheff left victorious.
In 2001, motivated by these events and her own personal struggle, Sue Scheff founded Parents Universal Resource Experts. Through P.U.R.E, Ms. Scheff has built a network of thousands of parents and has connected those all around the country who before were suffering in silence.
Sue Scheff™ and P.U.R.E.™ do not base their expertise on scientific studies and textbook jargon. They know that real parents want real life - real feelings, real situations, and real teens - and that is what they have to offer. Ms. Scheff has helped many parents through their desperation, letting them know that they are not alone in their battle.
Sue Scheff™ understands that many of the survivors of abusive programs suffered the ultimate price. She feels much remorse for their experiences, however, does not believe that shutting down all programs is the correct line of action. Many have benefited from qualified and safe alternative schools, and P.U.R.E.™ works to join parents with the right place for their troubled teen.
Sue Scheff™ and P.U.R.E.™ understand the need for strong regulation and guidelines for private teen programs and schools. Because currently, there is little or no government regulation or way for children inside these programs to report abusive action, Ms. Scheff and P.U.R.E.™ will continue to search out safe alternatives for children and educate parents.
Due to an overwhelming demand from her peers, Sue Scheff™ has just finished writing her first book, "Wit's End!". The publication is aimed at all those who work with troubled teens and offers insight and advice through the trials and tribulations of the author and those she has helped through her journey.