Good law makes for better health

The Public Understanding of Law Survey (PULS) shows that legal need and health problems can be strongly linked and there’s much more to learn from both sides of the equation. Exciting work is being done in health justice and our recent Research Network explored meeting legal and health needs in integrated and people-centred service.

VLF Executive Director Lynne Haultain began the webinar by sharing findings from a forthcoming VLF paper on health, legal needs and capability. Born from the PULS, the findings demonstrate a strong bi-directional relationship between health problems and legal problems.

"[The findings] present a very clear and very striking outcome and one that I think demands action from all of us who have a part to play in this." - Lynne Haultain

Lisa Ward, who has led the establishment of multiple health justice partnerships at First Step Legal and overseen their four-year process (funded by a VLF Knowledge Grant) to build internal evaluation capability, spoke to responding to these bi-directional relationships. By embedding lawyers in a range of non-legal settings, First Step Legal’s approach aims to deliver integrated legal support to people wherever they present for help.

“We've deliberately chosen a range of settings to test the versatility of the integrated model, to better understand how the service settings impact the type of legal help that should be provided,” Lisa explained. To address complex legal needs, the health justice partnerships were integrated within two in mental health settings, two in housing services, a family violence program and drug treatment ready rehab facility.  Lisa discussed the key insights and learnings from the evaluation of this model in the Network, and shared three reports that came from the project, which you can find with the recording.

If you are considering starting a health justice partnership or if your organisation currently has one, it may be worthwhile considering First Step Legal’s evaluation outcomes.

Our Research Networks aim to highlight exciting developments in access to justice and legal needs, both on a global and local scale. They also serve as a platform for researchers to network and connect with members of the justice community.

Want to learn more? Get the complete experience by watching the recording below. You can also subscribe to our Research Newsletter to stay informed about our upcoming projects and events. If you’re interested in contributing to our Research Network, please contact our Research team.

Watch the webinar