Health justice partnerships: a promising model for increasing access to justice in health services
Virginia Lewis
A D , Lauren Adamson B C and Faith Hawthorne C
A Australian Institute of Primary Care & Ageing, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, 3086, Australia.
B Office of the Public Advocate, 1/204 Lygon Street, Carlton, Vic. 3053, Australia. Email: Lauren.Adamson@justice.vic.gov.au
C Justice Connect, Seniors Law, 17/461 Bourke Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia. Email: faith.hawthorne@justiceconnect.org.au
D Corresponding author. Email: v.lewis@latrobe.edu.au
Australian Health Review 43(6) 636-638 https://doi.org/10.1071/AH18101
Submitted: 11 May 2018 Accepted: 25 July 2018 Published: 10 September 2018
Abstract
Many people experience legal issues that affect their health, but do not seek legal help, particularly if they are disadvantaged in some way. This may be because they do not recognise they have a legal problem, they are unwilling or unable to address it, or they do not know how to go about dealing with it. Most people seek health care at some point, so linking health and legal services may help promote access to justice. There have been ongoing efforts in Australia to link health and law services, such as through co-locating health and legal services or through running legal ‘clinics’ in health services, but these have not always reached the intended clients. Fully integrated health justice partnerships are a model where the law/health partnership is collaborative at all levels of the organisation. This perspective piece argues that the model is particularly suitable for health services that have clients with needs in a specific area of law, and should be carefully targeted to where it is most needed. Factors that contribute to successful implementation of the model are described.
Additional keywords: community health service, community legal service, elder abuse, health justice partnerships, medical-legal partnerships.
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