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DUI’s Are Embarrassing And Much, Much More

DUI’s Are Embarrassing And Much, Much More

In a state of shock over being pulled and given a DUI?  It is in fact traumatic and can have many aftershocks in your life resulting in anger, shame, depression and anxiety.

After some interesting discussions with a colleague who handles DUI’s here in Greenville, South Carolina, I discovered their firm’s deep and sincere commitment to their DUI clients and their emotions.  This resulted in an effort on their part to see their clients as more than their DUI offense and to humanize them as part of their legal representation.

I began doing Harm Reduction Psychotherapy for three sessions with DUI clients referred to me by the staff at this same law firm, in an experiment to see how this type of therapy could help their clients personally and legally.  After the three sessions, I write a report for them that is based on an effective clinical social work tool called the biopsychosocial assessment.  The assessment does not just state the facts about the DUI and what the client is doing to prove their seriousness about the charge.  It goes much farther than that and tells their story so that the officer and the court learns more about them than they would have known.  It is not excuse making but it does shed light on what happened and why compassion is needed along with fairness in decision-making.

Local legal staff asked me to speak at a defense lawyers association conference here in South Carolina and in preparation for that speech, I looked up some stats on DUI’s.  I was stunned to learn about the relationship between DUI’s and depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder.  Other mental, emotional and behavioral circumstances have also been shown to be related to DUI’s.  It is important that this information is present as a part of legal representation.

Those who have been stopped, arrested and charged with a DUI need to be responsible for any wrongdoing and especially when there is personal injury.  But it is also important to have any meaningful information about your life taken into consideration as well.  Compassion is called for in DUI cases just as much as any other case.  Victims of drunk drivers are still at the forefront of our concerns as they should be.  But we should not discard the needs of DUI recipients and the goal should be successful prevention.

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