PHILADELPHIA, PA – Lighthouse Network, a Christian-based addiction and mental health organization, has been selected to administer the Bucks County Juvenile Probation training in conjunction with its “Rewind Life” program.
Lighthouse Network’s “Rewind Life” program utilizes the premise that the average person is faced with 5,000 to 10,000 decisions each day. Most of these decisions are made without much conscious thought. But most poor decisions tend to come from the same problems, such as: 
- A distorted view of the situation
- Letting emotions disrupt the decision-making process
- Not seeing all of your options
- Not accurately assessing the positives and negatives in a situation
“Using the revolutionary S.P.E.A.R.S. approach (in every decision we must consider the stimuli, perception, emotion, assessment, response and summary thought), the “Rewind Life” program equips the user with concrete tools to slow life down, process what is truly happening, and then make the best possible decision for that situation,” says psychiatrist Karl Benzio, M.D., founder and executive director of Lighthouse Network.
A year ago, Benzio began meeting with representatives from Bucks County Juvenile Probation and Bucks County Youth Aid to find the best way to find treatment options for youth with behavioral health, mental health or addiction issues.
Youth who are arrested for a first-time, non-violent violation are often given the option of going through the court system or working with a Youth Aid Panel, made up of police officers and volunteers who can help guide a family through the best options for the teen. The panel decides the best course of action for the juvenile, and as long as he or she completes the proposed plan, no record will exist.
Benzio has been through recovery programs many years ago and knows firsthand the experiences a juvenile offender goes through. So he set out to create a program for youth that would actually impact their future, rather than cause them to banally complete the steps with no real life change.
“Rewind Life” is a different kind of ARD, or Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, program. Made up of short, 10- to 15-minute online videos about decision making, the six- or 12-part series poses questions to the youth, who can really delve into their own reasons for past decision-making patterns for answers.
“Rewind Life,” found online at www.RewindLife.org, asks the question, “If you could rewind your life, would you still make the same mistakes?”
“The online curriculum instructs them on the change process and the mechanics of good, healthy decision-making,” Benzio says. “It is very concrete and easy for young people to understand and implement. A decision-making worksheet helps them to deconstruct and reconstruct a decision each day for 30 days to practice so it becomes like muscle memory and shows tangible proof that a 
change process in their mind has occurred.”
Benzio adds that nothing substantial exists for a young person to work through at home or while on house arrest. And typical programs for vandalism, domestic violence, alcohol and drug-related offenses usually don’t facilitate change or growth.
“The flexibility and privacy of online learning and a message board structure is more in line with the way students learn today,” according to Benzio, “and we are really excited about the impact ‘Rewind Life’ can have on many lives.”
The “Rewind Life” program may be in place for Bucks County youth as early as this summer.
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