Troubled Teens Resources

“Once they get in this system, it’s a meat grinder,” said W. Michael Coulson, one of about 25 court-appointed attorneys in the juvenile courts. “For the most part, they’re on a rocket sled headed for TDCJ, unless something really big steps in the way.”

The gentleman above is speaking of the fate of troubled teens who have committed adult crimes in Texas, but the same holds true for any juvenile whose crimes merit the possibility of being charged as an adult. As courts around the country struggle with the increasing number of violent youth offenders, some districts have begun executing harsher sentences, trying more juveniles as adults.

“Texas permits courts to certify juveniles as young as 15 to be tried as adults for murder and other violent crimes.

For the past decade, Harris County has prosecuted more juveniles as adults than Bexar, Dallas, Tarrant and Travis counties combined.

In 1996, Harris County certified 170 juveniles amid a public crackdown on violent youth crime. That number steadily dropped to roughly 55 a year between 2003 and 2005.”

(source)

It makes one appreciate the necessity of early teen crisis intervention when perhaps brat camp programs or some type of training might have made the difference between continuing to break the law or choosing another path. Recently a 16 year old was sentenced to 25 years for aggravated robbery. Is that too severe?

Where do you put such teens if the juvenile system can’t rehabilitate them? It is a debate we will be seeing more and more of as court systems across the country struggle with the most effective methods of saving a teen’s life while keeping the public safe.

Teen crisis intervention typically targets troubled teens. A new program circulating through the nation targets the parents of those teens. Many parents simply have no clue what to look for beyond easily recognized drug paraphanilia, such as pipes and bongs.

Some parents are very removed from anything to do with teen drug abuse because they can’t imagine their own teens using. Word to the wise - all teens are at risk and parents need to be drug educated regardless of how confident they are that their teen is “clean”.

“The program featured a mock bedroom of a teenage drug user and around 70 items or indicators were placed throughout it. Parents had the opportunity to walk through and try to identify possible signs of drug use.

In addition the Department of Public Safety provided a teenage drug user’s car exhibit out in front of the high schools so parents could also find possible signs there too.
[…]
“Our goal is that hopefully a parent will see something during the event and a voice inside their head will be screaming to them that something is not right. Even if we just reach one parent, that could be one teen that we save,” Teresa Burnett said.

Gregory Flores, of Port Arthur, admitted he has always had little knowledge as to what drugs are out there, but feels he is not alone.

“It’s alarming. I knew kids were doing some of this. After seeing all the ways that they can hide what they are doing shows that they are smart, but we need to get them focused on being smart in school,” he said. “Parents also need to educate themselves so that they can see what is really going on.”

(source)

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder
has long been an area of concern in teen crisis intervention. The condition can seriously sabotage a teen’s efforts at school, thus bringing on feeling of inadequacy, leading to social and emotional problems. For those parents who have the finances to try alternative treatments for ADD , neurofeedback, not covered by most insurance policies, is getting good parental reviews.

“The concept of neurofeedback, also known as EEG biofeedback, dates back decades, to the discovery of measurable electrical impulses in the brain. Research and recent improvements in technology have made its use more practical for a broad range of clinicians.

A typical session, 20 to 45 minutes long, involves watching a computer screen with electrodes pasted to your head. The brain scan - signals go out, not in - delivers feedback of neuronal activity. Patterns are visible to both therapist and client in real time.

Acting somewhat like a coach, the practitioner monitors brain activity and presents various computer exercises or games - a child might work to control the successes of hungry Pac-Man-type blobs, for example - to train the client to shift the particular brain-wave patterns that play a role in a given neurological condition.

The technique has been most widely studied and applied with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, although it is used to treat a wide range of disorders linked to abnormal patterns of brain waves.”

(source)

When does teen crisis intervention end and adult punishment begin? There is ongoing debate within the halls of juvenile justice as to appropriate sentencing for violent teen offenders. There is growing concern that as teen violence is perpetuated by adolescents at younger and younger ages, that sentencing needs to be adjusted to reflect the seriousness of their crimes.

The same debate seems to be ongoing in Europe as well. Their various systems of juvenile justice may differ from America’s but they have been as seriously impacted by teen drug abuse, binge drinking and teen crime as we have. They also seem to have the same factions contending for the final word on the matter.

One side contends that it is unjust to force a teen offender into an adult system that offers little in the way of education or rehab.

Allowing defendants under 21 to be tried and sentenced according to juvenile law lowers the chances of repeat offenders by providing judges with more leeway in issuing appropriate sentences, he said.

“In general law you have fines, probation and jail sentences,” Sonnen said. “In juvenile law there is a much wider palette of options.”

Opponents feel that truly violent teens need punishment, not coddling.

“This week, Beate Merk, Bavaria’s justice minister and a member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) renewed criticism that cases such as the juvenile prison torture and murder showed that young offenders were also guilty of serious crimes which weren’t sufficiently punished with a ten-year prison sentence.

Offenders between 18 and 20 who are convicted according to juvenile law should thus get a tougher maximum sentence, Merk said.”

(source)

One can’t help but side with those who wish to meet extreme violence with adult cures. Especially where a long juvenile record indicates the juvenile has zero respect for the law. When young teens witness their peers getting light punishment for serious offenses, it only perpetuates the problem.

One of the most effective form of teen crisis intervention is that undertaken by individual celebrity athletes. The ones that take the time to visit and speak with the troubled teens who look up to them. In many cases athletes can raise money for programs for troubled teens that otherwise would have to scramble and fight for every thin dime.

Such is the case where a community program was saved via community efforts and the blessing of some football greats.

“Former San Francisco 49er Randy Kirk brought smiles to young faces and a $10,000 check to the El Toro Youth Center.

“Work hard, always do your best, and you’ll be able to achieve your dreams,” Kirk told a group of more than 30 children last week.

The Oct. 18 visit was great news for a program bouncing back from the brink of bankruptcy last June.

The staff breathed a sigh of relief as efforts to raise $100,000 came closer to a happy ending, with $93,000 raised so far, according to Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate, one of the community leaders working to save the center for at-risk youth in the community.”

Teen programs depend heavily on the generosity of the community and often flounder and fail for lack of funds. When that happens, the entire community suffers.

“The center has been a resource for low-income…families for about 20 years, providing after-school and summer programs for needy children and parents. Many low-income and single-parent families rely on El Toro for childcare and academic support. The center also serves as a hub of information on other social services available to low-income as well as immigrant families.”
(source)

“I think it struck a chord at the right time,” he says. “I think we lived in a world that parents had defined as gloomy and with this movie, kids the world over are saying ‘Life is good. It’s complicated but it’s good’. “

And that is likely the key reason High School Musical has met with such resounding success. Teen crisis intervention starts with making sure that nothing ever replaces the message that “Life is good.”. And I would disagree with the notion that parents are spreading the opposite message.

The message of doom and gloom is a Hollywood staple, even more so now, with heavily politicized scripts being written into every teen drama and comedy. The scripts tell them that America is bad and that Al Gore’s climate hysteria is a sure bet (in my generation we were told we’d all be dead of famine by now) and that the end of the world, in one form or another, is just around the corner. In the background there are choruses of thugs calling women “hos” or Nirvana wanna-bes spilling their angst ridden lyrics on to gloom laden guitar chords.

But life is good and the complications are challenges to be welcomed. If parents can keep that message louder than MTV’s message, their troubled teens‘ risk of falling into the casual drug use of today is far lessened.

“There’s a certain safeness and hope (that) kids are responding to and embracing.”

(source)

Yeah, well that’s what happens when you depict kids enjoying something other than drugs and sex. The rest of Hollywood needs to get a clue.

One area of teen crisis intervention is depression. Teenage depression, and depression in general, is reported as being on the rise. Some claim that that increase actually represents more depression being reported since the stigma attached to it has lessened.

Actual depression, in and of itself, is indeed a frightening and enervating experience for those who have it and those who live with them. But there is concern that it may be over-prescribed for, with perfectly healthy people deciding that their occasional, and quite normal, bout of the blues needs medicating.

The seriousness of depression was very clear to me when talking with a friend raising a teenage girl. In a girls boarding school since her freshman year, her father’s financial reversals brought her home. Finishing her senior year away from her friends threw her into a suicidal spin that her mother fears daily will be repeated.

Check with your trusted physicians as well as mental health specialists if you have concerns about your teen possibly being depressed. An article in Science Daily goes over basic information.

“Classic severe depression is fairly easy to recognize. However, there exist milder forms and variant forms that are less easy to recognize…

Depression generally presents as a persistent (more than 2 weeks) decrease in enthusiasm, motivation, energy, concentration, and enjoyment. It also can lead to sleep or appetite disturbance and feelings of worthlessness or guilt. Additionally, depression generally causes an individual to experience more medical problems and to be more susceptible to physical illness, including death.

Depression is NOT normal feelings of sadness, which ebb and flow according to situational factors.”

(Source)

Karen’s daughter Erin has just begun her high school career, entering the new school year as a freshman. A time that ought to be celebrated as an important threshold in a child’s life is now viewed with a great deal of trepidation by parents struggling with troubled teenagers. Karen had been concerned over some of the friends her daughter has been hanging out with at the end of eighth grade. She blew it off as just harmless teens with tattoos and rock star dreams.

Picking up her daughter after the first day of school, Karen was alarmed to see her standing around with the same tattooed kids who, if anything, looked more radical than they had last year. Erin immediately became belligerent when Karen questioned her about who they were.

Parents of young teens who have not yet dealt seriously with the issue of teenage drug abuse need to understand that an essential aspect of teen crisis intervention is for both the teen and parent to be educated about all aspects of drugs and drug culture.

If Karen’s suspicions that her daughter’s new friends do drugs, what signs should she look for? Trouble Teen.us offers some basic guidance. Follow the link to view the entire list of questions.

Are your teen’s friends concerned about him or her?
Has your teen ever returned home drunk?
Does your teen use marijuana?
Are there signs of heavier drug use?
Is your teen huffing?
Has your teen ever run away?
Is your teen sexually active?

The most common form of teen crisis intervention is education. Pure and simple, the bottom line is that teenagers need hope and the hope has to be reality based. Reality dictates that the educated teen has far better prospects than his drop out peers. When a teen starts failing in school, he sometimes just simply gives up, setting the stage for a whole host of other possible problems.

Programs for troubled teens that help these teens obtain their high school diplomas are extremely valuable. One such program is JAG or Jobs for America’s Graduates.

“The national nonprofit school-to-career program has found its way into 700 high schools, middle schools, alternative schools and community colleges in the U.S. and the U.K.”.

The program is slated to help those at-risk of falling through the cracks of passing periods, study halls and summer breaks of high school.

The students… are teamed up with a JAG specialist who teaches a class on work force skills. That specialist also serves as a mentor and watchdog for the students.

The goal is to get these pupils to graduate or to earn their General Educational Development certificate, and then find their place in the work force or higher education.
[…]
“We put them in goals, and if they meet their goal they get $50,” Brewer said. “That’s one of techniques I use at the beginning. After the first semester, I had so many kids that were wanting to be in (the class) I had to turn some down because they don’t qualify.”

Students can complete three goals a year for pay. And students can earn $200 if they graduate or earn a GED.”

(source)

One method of teen crisis intervention being employed in various cities around the country is teen court. This method of meting out justice has proven successful, often saving a out-of-control teen from offending again and landing in boot camps or schools for troubled teens.

“Teen Court has been a voluntary option for first-time juvenile offenders in Lawrence County for the past 12 years. The biggest benefit Teen Court affords the offender is a second chance, a chance to keep their record clean through successful completion of the Teen Court program and process. If the juvenile offender successfully completes the Teen Court program, their case is dismissed and their juvenile record remains clean.”

It seems peers do not like coming in front of their peers and being judged and such a judgement seems to be a strong factor for later deterrence.

The benefits the program holds for the community are two-fold. One is a focus on restorative justice, coupled with measures to deter first-time offenders from re-offending and, two, a savings to taxpayers. “We are making an impact with youth upon their first arrest. Being judged by their peers sends a strong message that this is not acceptable behavior. It is our goal to deter these first-time offenders, so we don’t see them as second, third or chronic offenders in the system,” said Todd.

(source)