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, 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 would 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]
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