Forensic Social Work: A Distinctive Framework for Intervention

This article reports on a study that explored the extent to which social workers employed by The Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (known as Forensicare) identified their practice as specialist, with distinct and distinctive skills and knowledge, their role differentiated from other fields of social work and the implications of this for the social work profession. As a group of social workers they provide services to mentally ill offenders in prison, to inpatients in the secure psychiatric hospital and after their release into the community, and provide assessments and psychiatric reports for court. A cooperative enquiry approach, using interview and focus groups, gathered information about how the social workers defined and described forensic social work and how social workers could be prepared for work in this practice domain. The social workers reported that the complex needs and great vulnerability of forensic clients meant they needed not only knowledge of individual functioning but also how to deal with a range of other systems to negotiate with legal and other services and advocate for clients and they believed social work education needed to provide a distinctive graduate pathway for this practice domain that acknowledges its unique and specialist identity.