Neuro note 1
I watched a Ted talk titled "The surprising connection between brain injuries and crime". In this Ted talk Kim Gorgens explains how brain injuries are related to the people living in the criminal justice world. She first got my attention when she stated that 50-80% of people in criminal justice have previously suffered from a traumatic brain injury. WOW! Kim tells about the research that she has done regarding behaviors that keep individuals in the revolving door of criminal justice. The main thing that is being looked at is not how to treat the brain injury but rather the underlying problem that is getting people into trouble. She explains her involvement in a program that helps these people get their life back and manage the issues that their injuries have caused. She works together with Judge Bowen to help get them out of the system and actually do something to help them in the future. She provided many examples of men who had suffered from TBIs and struggled with tasks such as complying in therapy, showing up to court on the right day and time, and memory impairments. Instead of giving these individuals more jail time, they were given accommodations that help them to build responsibility. With things such as reminders and coping mechanisms to control anger, a great transformation was made for all of the individuals. These individuals were given a chance and a little push along the way and ended up with a new perception of themselves that could lead them to have a successful future.
I chose this Ted talk because I thought it would be interesting to see how traumatic brain injuries effect the mind of people who are committing a crime. I do believe that people who make bad decisions should have to live with the consequences. However, I never actually thought of how these bad decisions could be influenced by things much deeper, such as brain injuries. This Ted talk made a great connection with what we have learned in this class so far. We have learned that traumatic brain injuries can cause cognitive deficits in areas such as short and long term memory, attention span, orientation, etc. It was inspiring to hear about these deficits actually occurring in people's lives and seeing how they were able to overcome them.
Gorgens, K. The surprising connection between brain injuries and crime. https://www.ted.com/talks/kim_gorgens_the_surprising_connection_between_brain_injuries_and_crime/up-next.
Comments