The Brent Centre has been running a service within the Brent Youth Offending Service (YOS) since 2008.
These young people are some of the most in need of support yet can be the hardest for mental health services to reach.
We play a critical part in the rehabilitation process through:
- Victim Awareness: One-off group sessions on conditional cautions that encourage young people to reflect on their crime.
- Adolescent Exploratory Therapy: Giving young offenders the space to explore their difficulties with a clinician.
- Parent sessions: Providing parents and carers the chance to talk openly.
- Staff development: Helping YOS officers identify signs of distress and understand the mental health needs of young people.
Case study
Jacob ended up at the YOS after pushing a police officer. He'd shared with his case manager his challenges with anger and lashing out.
Jacob felt he had had this issue since losing his great aunt, who’d raised him while his parents worked abroad. She took ill and died within the space of just a few weeks, but he wasn’t taken to see her. He then moved to live with his parents who had returned to the UK and had to move schools as they lived in a different area. Jacob struggled in the new surrounds, getting into trouble and excluded, and despite being bright and capable, he didn’t achieve good grades.
With his counsellor, Jacob discussed and reflected on his past, and managed to better understand his present emotions and behaviours. Having made the link with this root trauma, he realized how frighteningly out of his control things had felt for him during his aunt's passing; and that, with the family focused on the practical necessities, he had felt his emotional needs were not seen and that he was deprived of the space needed to process all the change.