BSW (Hons), PhD (Social Work) Candidate
Shelley Turner has more than 15 years’ experience working in the children and youth sector in both Victoria and New South Wales. She has worked for both government and non-government agencies and has extensive experience in the fields of juvenile justice, alcohol and other drugs, and recreation and personal development programs for children and adolescents. Until early 2011, Shelley was the clinical manager of the NSW Youth Drug and Alcohol Court (YDAC) Program, where she supervised a team of Juvenile Justice counsellors and officers and oversaw an inter-agency team of senior practitioners from Juvenile Justice, Justice Health, Community Services and the Department of Education and Training. The YDAC Juvenile Justice team was awarded a Chief Executive Award in 2009 for its contribution to reducing recidivism through their offence focused program. Shelley is currently working as a senior project officer in the operations directorate at the central office of NSW Juvenile Justice.
Shelley is undertaking a PhD in social work at Monash University, examining how clients understand and experience case management in juvenile justice. She has recently published a book chapter in an international text on offender supervision that critically reviews contemporary research evidence, issues and challenges associated with designing and implementing case management approaches in community corrections. Shelley has also conducted comprehensive literature reviews into a wide range of contemporary corrections issues, including managing ageing offenders in prison, effective case management with women offenders, the relationship between Vietnamese women, drug trafficking and problem gambling in Victoria, and an evaluation of the Port Phillip Prison’s Youth Unit. Shelley’s research interests and areas of clinical expertise include evidence-based practice, problem-solving courts, alcohol and other drug rehabilitation, restorative justice, mediation and conflict resolution, therapeutic jurisprudence, problem-solving approaches, motivational interviewing, change management and practice supervision.