At least one in three people in the justice setting may be neurodivergent, and they often also have several other challenges in their lives, both past and present. This may include homelessness, having experienced traumatic brain injury, coming from an ethnic minority group, having been in care and or having been excluded.
Combinations of vulnerability will be highly variable but what is consistent is the young person and their family are either having contact with multiple systems and telling their ‘tale’ again and again or being out of systems and ending up being under the radar. We can assume people will know what’s available to them and how to seek help. However, for many people they may also not know there is a system where help is available or know who or how to make contact.
Recognising the variability of each experience and that inequity is a common theme means we need to learn to create a formulation for each young person. This approach means moving away from labels to being more child-centred and towards inclusive and non-exclusive approaches. This has secondary benefits as it can lead to having more appropriate referrals to over-stretched services, for example ADHD assessment.
It is important that there is adequate and high-quality training relating to neurodivergent traits is undertaken by all who meet young people. This should not be done by using a narrow medical model by specific condition as this may preclude also an understanding of co-occurrence that may be, and often is, present. It will also miss the intertwined relationship with childhood adversities (which will vary and be unique to that young person) +/- trauma.
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