The Syracuse campus opened in 1994 as the Island View Residential Treatment Center. Its founders were Lorin Broadbent, DSW, Jared Balmer, PhD, and W. Kimball DeLaMare, L.C.S.W. Jared Balmer co-founded Rivendell Psychiatric Hospital, Island View RTC, The Oakley School, and the Aspen Institute for Behavioral Assessment. Along with individual and family therapy, the facility utilized "Positive Peer Culture" psychotherapy sessions. In 2004, the residential treatment center was acquired by Aspen Education Group. CRC Health Group, a company owned by Bain Capital, purchased Aspen Education for $300 million in 2006. Aspen and CRC Health Group owned and operated the Syracuse campus until 2014. A 16-year-old boy from Pennsylvania hanged himself in a bathroom at Island View in 2004, after he excused himself from a viewing of a film. The staff were unsuccessful in reviving him. Island View was cited for providing inadequate medical care to the child, placed on probation, and required to submit a plan of corrective action. Other former residents of the center claimed in 2012 that they had received inadequate medical care during their time there, and that they had been subjected to solitary confinement and other harsh physical and psychological treatment.
Before its closure, Island View treatment center provided subacute care to troubled adolescents experiencing mood and behavioral dysregulation, substance abuse, and difficulties at home or school. The 90-bed lockdown facility provided care to students ranging in age from 13 – 18 years. The average length of stay at the treatment center was 8–10 months. Teenagers at the residential program were monitored 24 hours per day, seven days per week, by team directors and houseparent staff and each other. The program offered a range of critical support services to troubled teens, including a therapeutic, positive peer environment and individual, group and family therapy. Specifically, residents received intensive therapies, behavior modification, psychopharmacology, nursing assessment and intervention, diagnostic evaluation, and educational planning. Residents typically received seven therapy sessions a week, in the form of five group, one individual, and one family therapy session. Residents were given "jobs" to perform within their team with unique names. The program used a "levels" structure – as a resident's behavior improves, he or she was advanced to the next level with rewards such as extra phone privileges and off-site field trips to movie theaters, malls, and restaurants attached to each higher level and more available job roles. Residents were kept physically active through various daily on-site activities that included weightlifting, rock climbing on the rock wall located in the gymnasium, running, basketball, dodgeball, soccer, etc. The school employed physical trainers to assist with the physical health of residents. Additionally, there were many opportunities for residents to participate in off-site activities if their privileges allowed that lasted anywhere from one day to one week. Activities included trips to local ski resorts to go skiing and snowboarding, extended backpacking trips in various national parks in Utah, rock climbing trips, etc. At Island View, the majority of residents were organized into teams by gender. This structure typically consisted of separate girls' teams – Copper, Silver, and Gold Teams – and separate boys' teams – Purple, Green, and Orange Teams – of 15–19 adolescents each with specifically assigned milieu or residential staff, teachers and others.
In May 2014, a new company, Family Help & Wellness, took over the facility, closed the Island View program and instead opened Elevations RTC with the new executive director, Dr. Hans. Before Elevations came under new management, the current executive director Ms. Jacques had worked at Island View for almost 20 years. Elevations is as a licensed residential treatment facility. It is an owner-operated program created in partnership with Family Help & Wellness. When the treatment center opened, Dr. David Hans was the owner and executive director; he left after several months. Former Island View RTC member of staff Judith Jacques, who was originally hired as the School Principal at Island View, as the Associate Executive Director, was the Executive Director as of 2015.
