Abstract
How can disparate professions better collaborate in a legal clinic environment to improve the health and wellbeing, legal and social outcomes for patients/clients? In this paper, we explore how an intentional blurring of the boundaries between the health and legal professions in practice—between lawyers, general practitioners and psychologists, in particular—in the context of clinical legal education may result in better patient/client outcomes. We find that direct interdisciplinary professional referrals for patient/clients within a legal clinic environment can promote effective and timely therapeutic interventions for those with complex and interrelated legal and health problems. Drawing upon the literature around cross-disciplinary professional client referrals and two client case studies from a health–justice legal clinic environment in which doctors, psychologists and lawyers personally cross-refer patients with legal and health problems, we recommend some steps to break down the interdisciplinary borders so as to improve access to justice and health outcomes for vulnerable clients.
Highlights
Faculty of Business, Government and Law, University of Canberra, 2617 Canberra, Australia; Faculty of Business, Justice and Behavioural Science, Charles Sturt University, 2580 Goulburn, Australia
Two of the key components in this particular legal clinic’s success were, firstly, in the view of the authors, the referral system adopted by the health and legal professionals
As the reported positive outcomes largely rely on informal feedback from the participating lawyers and health professionals and a brief on-line survey of the law students who worked in the clinic, a more formal mechanism of assessing patient/client outcomes, determining the appropriateness of the referral systems used in such environments and assessing the real benefits to law students is needed
Summary
“First, treat no lawyers” is a maxim that might find favour with some physicians and psychologists, most notably those in North America Such an idea reflects the deep and pervasive antipathy and distrust that sometimes exists between health and legal professionals within the United States, though not necessarily in other nations. In considering this question, in this paper, we first address the significant commonalities between the legal and health professions (with a particular focus on medical practitioners and psychologists) with a view to highlighting how these shared understandings can be mobilised through clinical legal education to support better outcomes for patients/clients. We consider two client case examples before suggesting areas for future research directed towards ensuring that no passport is required when “crossing the borders” between a health service and a legal service
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
