Adolescent Forensic Health Service
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About The Adolescent Forensic Health Service
Working with young offenders poses unique challenges. They engage in risky behaviours, have significant primary health needs and present with a range of mental health issues and complex behavioural and social concerns, including their offending behaviour. In order to work with these young people and engage and motivate them, service delivery needs to be dynamic and innovative, and therapeutic modality needs to be creative.
Who we are?
The Adolescent Forensic Health Service (AFHS) is a program of the Centre for Adolescent Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. AFHS has been operating since 1999 and is funded by the Youth Justice and Youth Services branch of the Department of Human Services, Victoria. AFHS provide health care services to young men and young women aged 10-21 years who are involved in the Youth Justice system in the state of Victoria.
At AFHS we undertake to provide the highest quality health and rehabilitative services, in Victoria, for young offenders, their families and the community with the vision of making a difference to young peoples' wellbeing.
AFHS is a unique multidisciplinary service that offers a holistic approach to health care. We provide a number of clinical and programmatic services to young people in custody and on community based orders.
The custody centres that AFHS serves are located at the Youth Justice Institutions in Parkville, Melbourne. Two centres reside on the Parkville site for young people aged 10-21 years who are either on remand or serving custodial sentences from the Children's and Magistrate's Courts. These centre's are: Parkville Youth Residential Centre (PYRC) which houses young men aged 10-14 years and young women aged 10-21 years; and Melbourne Youth Justice Centre (MYJC) which houses young men aged 15-18 years.
AFHS community based services are delivered centrally at the AFHS offices in Parkville and also in each of the three metropolitan Youth Justice regions (Southern, Eastern and North-West), where they are co-located with Youth Justice Units within the Department of Human Services. Being located in the Juvenile Justice Units allows AFHS clinicians to develop strong working alliances with Juvenile Justice case managers and assist with overall case planning and management. It also allows for easier access by young people who often face challenges accessing and attending community based agencies and reduces the number of appointments they need attend.