Teens in trouble with the law
We have a team of ADHD professionals who can help when you find yourself, a family member, a friend or your child in any worrying predicament
Counselling and psychotherapy is always helpful but there may be numerous other services you might be looking for if you find yourself/your child in trouble with the law.
Whatever circumstances you find yourself in, you will find nothing but understanding and support and a whole raft of ADHD legal support services from our team.
Need to check if your teen’s troubles could be connected to ADHD? Use our free screener.
When things start going wrong ....
Mixing with the wrong crowd or being easily lead and getting into risky situations
When other counselling/therapy hasn’t worked and you’re desperate for somebody to understand their ADHD brain
When addiction is becoming a problem
When you know your child is ‘different’ and ‘something’s going on’ but can’t find professionals to diagnose ADHD or other conditions
When teens start getting involved with gangs, knives, drugs or crime
When they start committing crime but haven’t yet been caught
When things get really nasty....
When they have been arrested
When they are under investigation from the police
When they are due to appear in court
When you need someone knowledgeable to talk to who understands the criminal justice system and how ADHD people should be dealt with
When they are in prison and you want them to have contact with a positive role model
...The sooner you contact us the better
We work very closely with ADHD specialist psychiatrists and are here to support you or your child going through any sort of legal difficulty.
We can almost guarantee your solicitor won’t know enough about ADHD to understand the link between the condition and the crime committed. We are experienced at liaising with legal teams to ensure the ADHD traits are fully understood and how each of those will have impacted on any crime committed.
We know how lonely and scary it can be when you or your child is involved in criminal behaviour but you need not feel alone. We understand the criminal justice system extremely well and are here to hold your hand as you go through any legal processes.
How We've Helped
My teenage ADHD son did something impulsive whilst off his medication and was facing criminal charges as a result. We contacted ADHD Liberty Worldwide as we had no idea where to start with trying to help him navigate this complex situation.
We were immediately put in contact with and met with Jo, an ADHD Specialist Social Worker who produced a comprehensive report to send to the Police explaining the situation and how our son’s ADHD had been instrumental in his poor decision making.
As a result of this report, and a very understanding Police Officer, the case has been completely dropped on Jo’s recommendations. Our son has learnt a valuable lesson from this without gaining a criminal record for a decision highly influenced by his neurodiversity.
He has also now engaged with therapy to help him build the executive functioning skills to help prevent this happening again in the future and to get him back on track with where he wants to be in life.
I hate to think what would have happened had we not got in contact with ADHD Liberty Worldwide and we are all VERY grateful to the team.
Other ways we can help guide you through the whole process
Please contact us for details of fees for each service
If you believe ADHD is present but hasn’t been diagnosed, we can fast track to a diagnosis with an ADHD specialist private psychiatrist, usually within a week
If you believe a wrong medical diagnosis is the problem and the correct one is critical for the court case, we can arrange for a private diagnosis usually within a week to not only obtain the right diagnosis but also the right medication
If you have seen CAMHS and either been given a diagnosis you don’t agree with or no diagnosis at all, we will liaise with CAMHS on your behalf
We can provide an appropriate adult to be at the police station. This will always be an ADHD professional
We can liaise with your solicitor on your behalf and advise them of the ADHD’s impact on the particular crime involved
We can prepare a detailed report of the persons particular ADHD traits and how they will have impacted on the crime. Report will be written by our ADHD Specialist Independent Social Worker
We provide expert ADHD witnesses who will speak on your behalf in court
We can arrange for you to speak to one of our currently serving police officers who are ADHD themselves and know the best way to present the ADHD impact on circumstances to the police
We provide ongoing support for the ADHD person from the moment of their arrest through to any potential court case.
We provide family therapy for any other members affected by the crime
We can accompany you to appointments with solicitors, youth offending teams, probation, social services, schools, CAMHS and the police
We can link you up with an ADHD person currently serving in prison who will write or speak directly to any ADHD adolescent who needs convincing that going to prison is not a good idea
Our young offender specialist counsellors
Our young offender specialist counsellors work with teenagers going off the rails all over the UK. As ex and current prison counsellors themselves, they work passionately and diligently to make sure teenagers do not end up behind bars because of either diagnosed or undiagnosed ADHD.
For those already in trouble, we can link you up with our team of ADHD/ASD informed solicitors and barristers. We can liaise between them, you and your child. We have in-depth specialist knowledge of how ADHD traits have impacted a crime – which can make all the difference to a judge trying to understand your child’s behaviour.
For teenagers still enamoured with a life of crime, we have ex-offenders, now reformed, who will sit and talk honestly to your child about what life in prison is REALLY like. We also have ADHD offenders currently serving prison sentences who will write to your child to give them the hard-hitting, but true pictures of the horrors that await them in prison.
IF YOUR TEENAGER GETS INVOLVED IN DRUGS
How it usually begins.... teens and weed
It’s extremely common for ADHD teenagers to use cannabis, often from a very early age. It’s not unusual to hear of nine-year-olds smoking weed. If you ask an ADHD teenager why they do it they will always give you the same two answers. Because it calms their brain down and helps them sleep. So if you have found your child using cannabis and are horrified, don’t panic! This is way more common than you might think. But it is a real indication that their brain is too active and possibly that they are having sleep problems.
We understand why they do it but we can work towards them stopping altogether. Which is very important. Not only because we don’t want them damaging their young brains but we also don’t want them giving it to friends which leaves them open to being arrested for ‘supply’. Worse still we don’t want their ADHD entrepreneurial skills kicking in when they decide to sell it to friends. We’ve seen far too many teenagers go down that road and it can lead to some very hefty prison sentences for ‘dealing’.
Why it's more common than you might think....
Did you know there is a huge link between addiction and ADHD? A lot of people don’t. In fact a lot of very important people don’t. Including a lot of very well-known rehabs and addiction specialists. It’s quite scary how many people don’t understand the link between ADHD and addiction. But we do.
The primary reason for the connection is that the ADHD brain is adrenaline seeking.
One of the ways it seeks adrenaline, or ‘a buzz’, is through alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, shopping and all sorts of other addictive behaviours.
So there is never any surprise when an ADHD person develops an addiction problem.
How we can help you
Firstly, please don’t send your teenager with any kind of addiction issue to see a standard therapist who doesn’t understand ADHD. This can do more harm than good.
Instead, allow us to introduce you to ADHD specialist Counsellors. All these professionals have battled and conquered their own addiction issues and all of them have an ADHD diagnosis. They will talk to your teenager at their own level, without a hint of judgment or telling off.
The addiction therapists will be able to explain and help your teenager understand how the ADHD brain is constantly looking for dopamine, the pleasure hormone, and when it is given a little taste of it, the compulsive element of the brain pushes for more and more of what is giving it pleasure.
This is what leads to compulsive drinking, drug taking, gambling, and any other addictive behaviour. The ADHD brains compulsivity is extremely powerful but there are tried and tested ways to stop that, proven to work very well for ADHD brains.
We can help....
If you are tired of fighting your child’s school who refuse to see anything wrong with their behaviour and are against children ‘being labelled’, when you yourself are convinced they have ADHD, please talk to us. We can help by assessing your child ourselves and fast tracking you through either the NHS or private diagnosis route.
If addiction issues or crime has wreaked havoc in your home, we can put you in touch with fully qualified family mediation and anger management therapeutic support.
We work with some phenomenal ADHD Child Psychiatrists and Child Paediatricians. They can usually see your child within 7 to 14 days for a full ADHD assessment. Fees on request. If your teenager is 18 or over, we have ADHD Psychologists who can assess and diagnose teenagers within seven days.
Here at ADHD Liberty Worldwide we are passionate about helping people with ADHD. Having ADHD ourselves we totally understand why ADHD teenagers can end up in some very tricky situations. We don’t judge. We totally understand why these things have happened and we will do our absolute best to help you – in what can be very scary and confusing times for families who have sometimes never found themselves involved with addiction or the law before.
We are on your side. And we really can help.
BOOKS WRITTEN BY OUR CEO
Sarah Templeton is passionate about keeping ADHD kids away from the criminal justice system. She writes books for parents, teachers and anybody else interacting with ADHD kids and teenagers
Please find all her books on Amazon, eBay and at The ADHD Stuff Shop
Reviews
Sarah REALLY gets kids/teens with ADHD. 100% recommend.
Sarah REALLY gets kids/teens with ADHD. When I read her book, it was as though she was describing my son. I have found this and all her other books so helpful.
Her style of writing is not the stuffy, formal manner of other ADHD books( she tells it as it is in plain language.)
The information is really accessible and down-to-earth, she demystifies what’s going on for ADHD teen, what they’re going through, why they act and react as they do and what we parents can do to help them and ourselves in the hope of restoring some measure of peace to our lives.
HOW NOT TO DAMAGE YOUR ADHD ADOLESCENT: Instead, Coach them Through their Turbulent Teens to Win at Life
Another great one from Sarah!
Another brilliant book from Sarah. Her passion comes through in her writing and what she is trying to achieve for our young people with ADHD. Some sad insights into those offending BUT lots of basic, simple ways to avoid them ever getting there. One to share with educators, the criminal justice system and families.
The Prison Counsellor: Her Only Crime Was Caring