Justine Orlandi
Qualifications / Professional Associations:
Master of Social Work; Master of Forensic Mental Health;
Bachelor of Psychology (Science);
Specialist Certificate in Criminology (Forensic Disability),;
ADOS-2 coding and reliability training.
Accredited Social Worker with the Australian Association of Social Workers.
Summary Professional Experience:
Justine is a clinician with extensive experience across disability, mental health, youth mental health and forensic practice. Guided by a strong commitment to positive behaviour support, she brings a direct, collaborative and highly person-centred approach to her work. Justine is calm and patient when working alongside clients, families and support teams, with a focus on understanding the function of complex behaviour, improving quality of life and supporting safe, trauma-informed responses to risk.
Justine has worked with people experiencing significant vulnerability and complexity, including in youth mental health, secure forensic disability settings, prison-related assessment and transition contexts, and forensic mental health. She has particular expertise supporting people with co-occurring intellectual disability, mental illness and offending histories. Her work includes functional behaviour assessment, forensic risk assessment, offence-specific and offence-related interventions, psychometric assessment, behaviour support planning and support for multidisciplinary teams.
Justine draws on evidence-based approaches including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, while adapting her therapeutic approach to each person’s communication style, disability support needs, trauma history and readiness for change. Justine is also experienced in collaborative ADOS-2 autism diagnostic assessment and is committed to recommendations that are practical, respectful and useful for individuals and their support networks.
Justine’s leadership style is practical, reflective and team-focused, with an emphasis on evidence-based decision making, safe role boundaries, professional development, and creating environments where practitioners feel supported to speak up, learn and grow.