OST Programme

One Stop Therapy: A Life Changing Program

The legal system's solution for problem behavior is punishment. This isn't very smart because it just doesn’t work: The same people are arrested repeatedly, despite the risk of punishment. We have a better idea: solve our client's legal problem and any problem behavior patterns at the same time. This helps our clients and benefits everyone. This is the smart way to handle the social problem of crime.

The lawmakers who created our legal system had no idea that the system of punishments would fail to deter people from breaking the law. After all, the lawmakers assume that no one would risk harsh punishment because the lawmakers themselves would never risk it. So here is the fundamental flaw in our legal system: This assumes that the people most at risk for running into criminal prosecution think the same way as the lawmakers. They don’t.

The reason is very simple: Most of the people who break the law suffer from brain illnesses that affect their behavior.

When you think about it, it makes sense. Here's the math:

Brain = Behavior

Healthy Brain = Healthy Behavior

Unhealthy Brain = Unhealthy Behavior

For most people, this is hard to fully understand. So think of it like this: If someone you loved were suddenly stricken blind or deaf, it would be obvious to them and everyone else. The same is true when someone is so mentally ill that they lose touch with reality hallucinate. But when someone slowly starts to have vision or hearing problems, they and everyone else may not be able to tell. The hearing or visually impaired person may not even know that they have a problem for a long time – if ever. Think about this carefully: You can’t tell if someone has a hearing or sight problem just by looking at them. Over time, the impairment may become obvious to others if the hearing impaired person continually turns the television volume up louder than other friends or family think is appropriate. The visually impaired person may have trouble reading or driving. Often, the person suffering the visual or hearing problem is the last to know.

Now imagine an illness of the brain that doesn’t cause headaches, sneezing or nausea – it can’t be seen or heard. How do the symptoms become apparent? Here’s a shocker: Your loved one gets arrested.

In many cases, some family members saw the pattern of behavior and correctly predicted it would cause problems. However, they may have attributed the behavior to a lack of discipline, character, morals or other personal failing. This will need to be examined, but in many cases, the problem behavior is not just a moral failure: In about 80% of all cases where the defendant is guilty, an undiagnosed, misdiagnosed, or improperly treated brain illness is involved.

Brain illnesses don’t always have obvious symptoms like instant blindness or the flu. Symptoms of a brain illness often show up in the form of problem behavior which results in arrest. Fortunately, most of these illnesses can be successfully treated.

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