Forensic Disability Services

About the Forensic Disability Services – video transcript
[Opening title card: Victoria State Government – Department of Families, Fairness and Housing]
[Music plays in the background throughout the video]
Male staff member 1: Forensic disability services is essentially about supporting people with a cognitive disability, so generally that's people with an intellectual disability or acquired brain injury, and it's about supporting them through the criminal justice system.
Female staff member 1: So I am a senior disability justice co-ordinator with the forensic disability program. So our role is essentially to coordinate services for people with an intellectual cognitive disability.
Male staff member: What we really want to do is get, get an understanding and acknowledge what our client's goals are and use them to motivate the person to work in more pro-social ways.
We all want the best in our lives, and unfortunately, often offending is a way of trying to get reasonable needs met, done in a poor fashion and what we want to do is work with them, work on their goals so they're able to live independently, get their needs met but at the same time, doing in a way that makes the community safer.
Female staff member 2: You're here to make a difference in people's lives so in order for you to make that, you also have to really work on yourself.
Male staff member 1: The key skills we need are people skills, people who work well with others, who are able to problem solve, who see the best of our clients.
Male staff member 2: Every day is a different day. Every day is unique and you know, sometimes you do a lot of fun things with the clients.
Male staff member 1: Our best people in this field come from areas where you wouldn't anticipate, have been tradies, or who've been truck drivers. But it is those soft skills, and it's people who are able to relate to other humans and be able to get on with them, they're the people who do best in this field.
Male staff member 3: I'm a tradie by background. So many years ago, I was in the trades.
Male staff member 1: You know, there's no question that this is a group of people who have done some horrible things. But, our goal there is to prevent that from happening in the future.
Male staff member 4: We always talk about how we can best support the client in moving towards their goals and reaching whatever they need to do and obviously stopping any risks that may come up for them.
Male staff member 1: That's one of the things I love about this space is that I can work with an individual and see them develop and become happier, but the ripple effect of that is massive.
Female staff member 3: Every day I go to work and you do feel accomplished at the end of every day.
Male staff member 1: I generally anticipate most people who'd be coming into these roles have not had any experience at all in this background at all. But that's the system we're set up for.
We know that's what we're expecting people to come in to see. So we are eager to make sure that we provide a lot of training.
Female staff member 4: If you're willing to not give up on clients, if you're willing to put in 100%, I think, you know, you will make a difference to the clients and you will do your job well.
Male staff member 1: You need to work with someone and understand their offending, where that comes from and then how to manage those risks and support them to go down a path where they're not likely to do that. You also need to have an understanding of the justice system, you need to be able to work with government, you need to work with non-government organisations.
Female staff member 5: I think it's really rewarding getting to work with this clientele and trying to make a difference in the community.
[Closing title card: Victoria State Government – Search for jobs in Forensic Disability Services at www.careers.vic.gov.au]

About the Forensic Residential Services – video transcript
[Opening title card: Victoria State Government – Department of Families, Fairness and Housing]
[Music plays in the background throughout the video]
Male staff member 1: What brings me back is the uniqueness of the job, it's not a very typical nine to five sitting in front of a computer job.
Female staff member: I have studied psychology and forensic science as an undergrad. I've also got a cert four mental health, and I was basically like, where am I going to get a job that's in forensics that's going to hire me without experience?
Male staff member 2: I'm a tradie by background. So many years ago, I was in the trades, so I'm now in a completely different field that I never thought I would end up in so it's quite good.
Male staff member 3: This is more, more complex, more challenging and more involved. And you are involved in people's daily lives.
Female staff member: Some of the challenges we face every day are fitting the residents, the staffing group and the operational needs all into one to create the best outcomes possible in a day.
Male staff member 1: How we work through those challenges is, you know, upskilling the staff members, mentoring a lot of training.
Male staff member 3: To become a part of the team, they gave me a number of training. Training involving culture background, how to support people with a different culture background to communication, and justice system.
Female staff member: My workplace has been extremely helpful with you know, allowing me to study and work full time, very flexible in that aspect.
Male staff member 2: You know, I have a better relationship with my own kids now than what I think I would have if I wasn't in this field.
Male staff member 1: Skill development has really developed my confidence in dealing with the situation that I wasn't able, you know, I was really afraid to deal with when I started off. Now I'm really comfortable and I can walk in and I can think on my feet in the right, you know, and make the right decision.
Female staff member: We have a massive team, which is great because I've got lots of resources.
Male staff member 2: Knowing that you can have an opportunity to make a difference and make someone a valued member of society and keeps bringing ya back.
[Closing title card: Victoria State Government – Search for jobs in Forensic Disability Services at www.careers.vic.gov.au]

About the Disability Justice Coordination – Video transcript
[Opening title card: Victoria State Government – Department of Families, Fairness and Housing]
[Music plays in the background throughout the video]
Female staff member 1: Our role is essentially to coordinate services for people with an intellectual cognitive disability involved in the criminal justice system.
Female staff member 2: This role has, you know, multiple opportunities. I think even with the department if you want to grow and you want to move, you can go into a leadership role. You can go into an advisory role.
Female staff member 3: You know, it's really exciting, challenging, but also exciting. Like you get to learn so much, you know, that keeps me coming into this role.
Female staff member 1: You know, I was fortunate enough for the department to put me through a forensic disability course with Melbourne University, which was an amazing kind of introduction to understanding forensic disability.
Female staff member 4: I've done two specialist certificates which have been funded through the department and the specialist certificates were a sexual offender management and forensic disability and I completed those at Melbourne Uni, which was just amazing.
Female staff member 1: You know, we really need to be mindful of, I guess somebody's, what their disability needs are, their cultural needs and the best ways to actually support that person to get through those challenges.
Female staff member 3: Just being that person for the client is such a huge difference in their life. And I always and it's always such a memorable thing for me to carry wherever I go in the department, that will be something that always stick with me.
[Closing title card: Victoria State Government – Search for jobs in Forensic Disability Services at www.careers.vic.gov.au]

About the Forensic Disability Clinical Services – video transcript
[Opening title card: Victoria State Government – Department of Families, Fairness and Housing]
[Music plays in the background throughout the video]
Male staff member: I'm a psycho educational worker, who works in the clinical community team and what we do is we do assessments and deliver programs to people who are in the in the community, who are on corrections orders.
Female staff member 1: We might have some people that are psychologists or social workers or disability support officers, and we all work together in different areas to support the clients. We've got a really supportive team. We try and make sure that we're supporting each other, not just in work, but also in life.
Male staff member: So I started off in my student placement here, and then what happened is they trained me up and then they got me employment as working downstairs. And then they took me to courts and to different training sessions.
Female staff member 2: So we have a multidisciplinary team which is operational staff or treatment support officers. We have psycho educational trainers and we have senior clinicians and managers that all have different qualifications.
Female staff member 1: As part of that team we provide clinical oversight in care team meetings and provide progress updates and work together to get the best outcome for our clients.
Male staff member: I hope to keep working and moving up and trying to create more programs that help clients.
Female staff member 1: I think it's really rewarding getting to work with this clientele and trying to make a difference in the community.
[Closing title card: Victoria State Government – Search for jobs in Forensic Disability Services at www.careers.vic.gov.au]