Montana Puts Behavioral Health Reform in China‑Linked Hands and a Boy Ends Up with Traumatic Brain Injury
Republished with permission from AbleChild.
AbleChild was first to expose Montana’s plan to outsource the redesign of its behavioral health system to a China‑linked consulting firm, and now the traumatic brain injury of a 13‑year‑old boy at Provo Canyon School sadly demonstrates how badly that promised “mend” missed the mark.
Montana’s lawmakers promised a historic fix. With a $300 million behavioral health investment and a high‑priced consulting firm, the State’s lawmakers said they would “transform” and “mend” a system that had failed vulnerable people for years. Behind that language was a decision AbleChild flagged from the start: the state handed the redesign of its behavioral health system to Alvarez & Marsal, a private firm with business ties in China, instead of building transparent, accountable capacity in Montana. That choice was not a technical detail. It was the blueprint for what would count as “reform.”
A $300 Million “Mend” That Left a 13‑Year‑Old in a Hospital Bed
While consultants and state lawmakers talked about strategy and transformation, the state continued quietly sending children to Provo Canyon School in Utah, for-profit residential psychiatric and behavioral facility with a long history of complaints and abuse allegations. Montana has paid Provo Canyon roughly $26 million over the last decade, proving this was a pipeline, not a one‑off placement.
Then a 13‑year‑old Montana boy allegedly suffered a traumatic brain injury at Provo Canyon. Families, backed by Paris Hilton, have now taken the facility to court, alleging delays and failures in his care. Only after that catastrophic harm did Montana officials suspend new referrals to the facility. This is what “mend” looks like in practice: a child badly injured in a facility the state has patronized for years, and reform arriving only after the fact.
The China Question No One in Power Wants to Ask
The China connection is not about Provo Canyon being a Chinese institution. It is about who Montana chose to trust with redesigning its behavioral health system and how it impacts national security and vulnerable children.
Alvarez & Marsal is a global consulting firm that does business in and with China. Montana’s decision was to pay that firm, at hundreds of dollars an hour, help steer how a $300 million “Future Generations” behavioral health investment would be structured and spent. That included advising on the overall continuum of care, financing strategies, and the shape of state services.
At a minimum, the choice raises a basic question the public deserves answered: why would any American state outsource the redesign of its already failing behavioral health system to a consulting firm tied to China, instead of building transparent, accountable capacity at home? If the result of that choice is a polished reform narrative on paper and a child with a brain injury in real life, then the outsourcing model—not just its implementation—has to be on trial.
What Real “Mending” Would Have Done
If this were genuine reform, certain basics would have been non‑negotiable:
- Reducing reliance on controversial out‑of‑state corporate psychiatric institutions.
- Building in‑state, community‑based alternatives with real oversight with a high focus on educational resources.
- Systematically reviewing high‑risk legacy vendors like Provo Canyon and closing dangerous pipelines, not leaving them to run until disaster forced a pause.
Instead, while the consulting machinery turned, the state kept exporting high‑risk youth to Provo Canyon. The facility stayed open. The contracts stayed in motion. The checks kept going out. The only real break in the pattern came not from the consulting plan, but from a crisis: a 13‑year‑old boy allegedly suffering a traumatic brain injury, and families refusing to stay quiet. That is not a system that has been mended. It is a system that has been rebranded.
The Outsourcing Logic Exposed
Defenders of the status quo will say that consultants do not make individual placement decisions. That is true on paper. But it misses the point.
Alvarez & Marsal was hired to shape the architecture in which those decisions happen: what capacities the state builds, what it buys, which gaps it accepts, how much it leans on out‑of‑state facilities, and what “success” looks like when the money has been spent. When that architecture leaves intact a pipeline sending Montana children to a controversial, for‑profit psychiatric institution—and a child comes home with a brain injury—the redesign cannot be treated as separate from the harm.
AbleChild’s earlier reporting on the China‑linked outsourcing called this risk plainly: that a system run through external consultants, rather than rebuilt with public accountability, would protect contracts and narratives before it protected children. The Provo Canyon case is that warning made visible.
Who Does This System Really Serve?
Montana’s lawmakers have talking points: historic investments, commissions, and “Future Generations” strategy documents. Families have a 13‑year‑old boy with a traumatic brain injury, a facility that should have been scrutinized long ago, and a state that only acted when the damage was too severe to ignore. The contrast forces an uncomfortable but necessary question: who does this $300 million system really serve? The children whose lives depend on safe, effective care or the institutions and consultants that profit from the appearance of reform?
Until Montana can answer why it chose China‑linked consultants to reengineer a system that still ships kids to Provo Canyon, and why it took a child’s catastrophic injury to revisit that decision, the claim that the state has “mended” its behavioral health system rings hollow.
AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.
What you can do. Sign the Petition calling for federal hearings!
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Why do I feel McTurtle's wife is linked to this?
More like Tampon Tim and Chinese friends
Why not both? Chinese money runs through both parties!
ROPES DO NOT DISCRIMINATE. NORMALLY I AM AGAINST ANTI DISCRIMINATION BUT IN THIS CASE IT WORKS OUT BETTER FOR THE REST OF US.
JUNE 28, 2026, "YOU ARE SO RIGHT". "WE NEED TO DEEP-DIVE -INVESTIGATE ALL SUSPECT U.S. HOUSE, AND SENATE MEMBERS" (BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLES) FOR TIES TO CHINA,(THE C.C.P.)
Or maybe Dr. Jill. She has experience in abusing brain dead, gifting, dementia patients.
Montana and Utah are Republican strongholds. I doubt they'd listen to Dr. Biden.
I am so stupid I missed completely what happened to da kid and why it is da Chinese Commies who are responsible???
My thoughts exactly. What happened to the kid?
Something about sending children to a Privy outhouse in Utah?
Privy refers to an outdoor toilet, often known as an outhouse or Obama Bathhouse.
I am lost too on this one.
I found some very vague information and posted it under Mac's question.
And how is this place responsible for the injury, whatever the injury was.
Apparently they were not supervised, a BIG no no in mental/behavior care.
It would have been nice if the article had mentioned that in the story.
The alleged assault was that another resident “slammed” the 13-year-old onto his head during a fight at Provo Canyon School, causing serious head injuries including a fractured jaw and intracranial bleeding/brain bleed. The boy’s mother said he is “doing well,” though she worried about the mental trauma he suffered after the assault and brain injuries.
From The Salt Lake Tribune:
For weeks, Aleah Corona’s 13-year-old son told his mother he was afraid he would be hurt at Provo Canyon School. During their therapy sessions earlier this year, she said, he told her that other students had threatened him and that he didn’t feel safe.
Corona was worried too. It wasn’t like her son to have a “meltdown” over safety concerns, she told The Salt Lake Tribune. But she said school staff reassured her that she didn’t need to worry.
“It’s like a manipulative tactic,” she recalled being assured. “He’s just probably doing it because he wants to go home. A lot of kids are doing it.”
Then, on May 14, another resident — larger than Corona’s son — slammed the teen’s head into the ground, a new lawsuit Corona filed Monday alleges. The lawsuit alleges the assault happened after “tensions between the two youths were permitted to escalate in the presence of staff.”
Corona’s son was knocked unconscious, and he was bleeding from his mouth. But Provo Canyon School staff did not call 911, according to state records, and no ambulance or police came. Instead, the staff took the 13-year-old to an emergency room themselves — which state regulators later determined resulted in a one-hour delay in treatment.
Her lawsuit states that her son’s injuries were so serious that the Orem hospital transferred him to Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he was diagnosed with a fractured jaw and a traumatic brain injury.
But police were not alerted to the boy’s injuries until a Primary Children’s emergency room doctor — who happened to be a state senator — called law enforcement, Corona’s attorney said Monday.
Okay, where is that information in the story?
How about you and the other person actually research these things yourself? It's not hard, and it is actually helpful.
You read a story figuring the author of the story did the research.
You can find more information by asking the internet.
Exactly. The information was left out.
Exactly. The information was left out.
Your "source" – please.
Dayum!!!! Thanks!
I learned more from your comment than I did from reading the article. Thank you.
All I could find out by searching was that another resident hit the kid in the head, breaking his jaw and causing bleeding on the brain (allegedly). I'm not sure how that can be prevented anywhere unless everybody is kept in isolation.
There is a claim that a girl was not sent to a hospital until after days of reporting nausea and pain, causing kidney failure. That's what's alleged, anyway. That would obviously be a case of negligence.
Thanks, u can’t stop em from hittin each other, but delayed care will definitely git em in trouble unless da inmate is a Jan 6er! No LOL!
Smokin' – where did you find that info? [Source[s]?]
I clicked on the Blue “Paris” Hilton link in the article. It opened another article about the lawsuits. I didn’t realize it was a link, but it works.
Thanks, info much appreciated!
You are not the only one! How did that child wind up with a brain injury? THAT is the question that should have been answered in this article!
The source is actually linked within the story. The lawsuit of the long history of abuse is also linked within the story. Check the BOLDED links and the sourcing and information is right within the article as always.
Stolen taxpayer monies handed to private corporations rather than them having to earn them directly from consumers. A failed policy that sadly BOTH worthless major parties embrace in their own particular ways.
Stolen money?
If you mean taxes…it is not exactly stolen.
In geneal, private organizations have been shown to be better stewards of taxpaer funds than the government themselves.
But never, should any taxpayer monies be given to any company with communist (or other such) ties.
They will never have the interest of the US Citizens at heart.
shown to be better stewards of taxpaer funds…BY WHO YOU CLOWN? GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS ABDICATE THEIR DUTIES AND EMPLOY 3RD PARTIES IN ORDER TO EVADE RESPONSIBILITY AND YOU SEEM TO BE IN FAVOR OF PAYING 2 PARTIES TO DO ONE JOB. WELL THE GOVERNMENT CANT BE TRUSTED TO DO THEIR JOBS BUT YOU WANNA TRUST THEM TO HIRE SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT. LIKE HAVING YOUR GARDENER HIRE A GARDENER TO DO THE JOB YOU HIRED TO DO THE GARDENER TO DO.
** Stolen money?
If you mean taxes…it is not exactly stolen. DONT SPLIT HAIRS YOU DEMOCRAT, YOU, I AND EVERYONE ELSE KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT DAVID S MEANT/MEANS. SNIPING HIS COMMENT TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL SMART DID NOT WORK.
bill wrote: "In geneal, private organizations have been shown to be better stewards of taxpaer funds than the government themselves."
I would agree that "in general" private organizations [companies] do a better job of handling projects [funds] than the Federal [or state] government agencies.
How did you arrive at your conclusion?
PS: I do agree that the hand off of $$ or authority to ANY organization doing business with China should NOT be allowed – under any circumstances.
*How did you arrive at your conclusion?
ARE YOU ASKING ME OR BILL?
Asking billspill at his post beginning with: "Stolen money?
If you mean taxes…it is not exactly stolen."
IM SO PO’D THAT EVEN WHEN YOU AGREE WITH ME IT APPARENTLY CONFUSES ME ;)) YEAH NOT SURE WHY BUT HIS COMMENT JUST ANNOYED ME.
MULLIN JUST TOLD THE HATIANS TO APPLY FOR CITIZEN SHIP…AT EVERY TURN THESE POLITICIANS ARE ACTIVELY EITHER BLOWING THROUGH TAXES OR LOOKING TO SELL AMERICA TO ANY 3RD WORLD COUNTRY FOR THEIR CUT OF THE LOOT. IT IS BEYOND DISGUSTING.
Leftists love China.. more than the US
They are incompetent and evil.
Putting American kids' well-being in Chinese hands is like trusting your kids to Iranian Mullahs. Both countries have a national goal of destroying the USA, the Iranians are more outspoken about it.
WE SEEM TO BUILD "UNACCOUNABILITY & NON-TRANSPARENCY" INTO GOV'T WITH NGO'S AND FEDERAL SUBCONTRACTORS THAT ARE NOT RESONSIBLE TO "THE PEOPLE" VIA "CORPORATE VAIL" YET THEY ARE NOT GOVERNED BY THE LAWS TO CONVEY SERVICE THE WAY GOV'T IS
SO WE BUILD NO OVERSIGHT OR ACCOUNTABILITY INTO OUR SYSTEMS !!!
WHY ???
TO STEAL AND GET AWAY WITH IT !!! THAT'S WHY !!!
THAT'S WHAT SENATORS WHO DON'T WANT TO PASS LEGISLATION "THE PEOPLE" WANT DO …
SO THEY DON'T GET CAUGHT STEALING FROM US "THE PEOPLE" !!!
IT'S WHY THUNE AND TILLIS WON'T PLAY BALL THEY ARE ALL THIEVING SENATORS AND THEY'VE SOLD SECRETS TO THE CHINESE AND OTHER FOREIGN GOV'T !!!
YOU IMPLY THE COMMUNISTS AND OTHER FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS ARE A SEPARATE ENTITY FROM OUT OWN. JUST LIKE OUR UNIPARTY IS NOT DEMOCRAP OR REPUBLICANT……THERE IS ONE PARTY AND IT IS THE NEW WORLD ORDER.
WE ARE NOT ONLY IN A FIGHT WITH "THE OTHER SIDE" WE ARE IN A FIGHT FOR OUR VERY LIVES FROM WITHIN. IT IS TIME. THERE ARE NO GOOD GUYS IN GOVERNMENT.
CORRECT !!! OUR GOV’T STEALS FROM US USAID WAS PROOF ENOUGH FOR ME BRUH !!!
How many times must we reminding those academic idiots that there is a Communist in front of China?
This explains why Democrats are mentally unstable.
Montana and Utah are both run by Republicans.
Follow the Money someone was paid off…WHO THE HELL TRUST CHINA WITH THEIR CHILDREN ??????
What this article written failed to do was report WHAT happened to the 13 year old after the assault.
The alleged assault was that another resident “slammed” the 13-year-old onto his head during a fight at Provo Canyon School, causing serious head injuries including a fractured jaw and intracranial bleeding/brain bleed. The boy’s mother said he is “doing well,” though she worried about the mental trauma he suffered after the assault and brain injuries.
Which can, and does, happen anywhere.
this is a vague article without explaining the injury and how rhe organization failed. Waste of time reading.
I could see that happen in California or New York, but you'd have thought Montanans would have been more sensible.
Why? Republicans are proving themselves to have no interest in what's best for the American people. For them, it's all about obedience to their spiritual leader Trump.
They give kids today a gazillion vaccines, they end up with autism and worse, then they try to figure out how to fix their minds?? Quit giving the darn shots & the kids would be highly intelligent & vote Republican.
EITHER WE WREST CONTROL OF OUR LIVES FROM THESE POLITICIANS AND BUREAUCRATS OR THEY WILL KILL US.
AT WHAT POINT WILL AMERICANS STOP BEING VICTIMS?
A vital link is missing in this story. How did the 13 year old get a brain injury?
Ok, he was injured at a facility managed by a China-linked consulting firm, but unless we know how the boy was injured, I can easily conclude that this injury is anecdotal. It could have happened at any institution.
So instead of establishing this vital link, the story goes on about how the school managed in part by China, if one follows the implication, is responsible for the child's injury.
I'm not buying it. Until I see how the child was injured, and under what the circumstances were, I am not going to get outraged over this. I do have empathy for the kid, but I'm not going to blame the machine for this… at least not yet.
Come on GP [Joe Hoft] you, or someone in the editorial staff needs to review articles such as this one!! Many have asked that very same question[s] presented by "FC" within the comments section. "We" ask for your answer[s]: Where is the "rest-of-the-story"??
WHAT STORY? I DID NOT REALIZE THERE EVEN WERE STORIES. I JUST COME FOR THE COMMENTS TO GET THE LATEST NEWS. ;))
Good point!
ANY 3RD PARTY COMPANY BEING PAID WITH TAXES IS WHERE YOUR OUTRAGE SHOULD START. I HAVE NO DOUBT A CONSULTING FIRM WAS EMPLOYED TO REVIEW THE BIDS IN ORDER TO AWARD THIS COMPNAY EMPLOYMENT….. JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE WE THE TAX PAYER EXPECTED TO PAY TO DO THE ONE JOB THEY WERE HIRED TO DO? AN EXAMPLE IS THAT WE PAY CONGRESS 174,000.00 PER YEAR. THEY IN TURN EACH HAVE STAFF AND BUDGETS FOR THEIR OFFICE COSTING US MILLIONS. EACH CONGRESSMAN HAS A CHIEF OF STAFF ALONE THAT MAKES 200 TO 600 THOUSAND PER YEAR.
Go back to the first time Paris Hilton's name is used and click on her name because it's a link to the details.
Ah… Delayed medical treatment. Thanks. Explains a lot. Having said that, that explanation still should have been explicitly stated in Joe Holt’s article. It could have been done in one sentence, as I have just done. One cannot presume that an explanation is embedded within one of the links contained in the article.
"a 13‑year‑old boy allegedly suffering a traumatic brain injury,"
WOULD IT BE ASKING TOO MUCH TO TELL US HOW THE BOY RECEIVED THE BRAIN INJURY? CONSIDERING YOU USED THAT TERM 7 TIMES IN THE STORY BUT LEFT OUT HOW IT HAPPENED.
YOU COUNTED? {JK}…. I GAVE UP WHEN I REALIZED THE WRITER HAD AT BEST, A.D.D OR THEY THEMSELVES HAD SUFFERED A TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY.
L:))
There's a link in the story that says that the kid was slammed to the ground by another resident. It broke his jaw and caused a brain bleed. Apparently it took a while for someone to call for medical help.
The link is Paris Hilton's name.
You need to be Sherlock Holmes to find out such details.
Paris would probably be another Brittany Spears if her parents didn't send her to juvie psych
Seems to me like alot of money is being laundered here.
ALL THESE SMARMY LIL RATS DO IS LAUNDER OUR MONEY AND THE DISCOUNT RATE APPEARS TO BE 85% BRIBE AND 15% KICK BACK TO THE SELECTED OFFICIAL.
Agree
Okay, everyone. There is a link to missing details the first time Paris Hilton's name is used. Click on her name and the details of how the kid got injured are in the link.
Since life is considered relatively cheap in China, it sure seems counter intuitive to trust anything coming out of there, having to do with life or health.
The writer of this article better be real careful when they start talking stuff about A&M. They are some of the very, very BEST auditors in the world.
I don't get why the auditors failed the child. I do see, however, that the STATE itself and the staff and folks responsible for that place were who FAILED the child. A&M…uh, nope.
I wouldn’t send any child to Utah for anything. Maybe trauma care in Salt Lake but that’s it. Utah is a freaking mess and you LDS people are in charge of all that crap.
The article is about the 300 million spent with a consulting group, not the injured kid. In this case his injury was to highlight how spending money doesn't change beurocratic entrenchment.
This is stupid. They do business in China, they are not a Chinese company. United, Delta and American Airlines all operate flights to and from China, therefore doing business in China. Are they tied to China? The federal and all state gov'ts have accounts with these airlines as do most major corporations.
Give me 300 million and I bet I could set up a better system
As low bidder, I would do less for less.
Right up there with that Fraud Fauci research facility in Hamilton.
Nothing linked to China works well for ANYONE!!! Ever!!!
Another "behavioral health" grifter business. The whole industry, which exploded with growth in the past decades, is a deceitful, despicable scam. If one does not fit someone's definition of "normal", they get a label slapped on them. It's covert Marxism in creating a compliant, obedient, non-questioning slave population and it's disgusting.