Partnerships in Healthcare Delivery: Health Justice Partnerships (Presentation Slides)

Abstract

Dr. Curran’s Conference Paper discusses how Health Justice Partnerships (HJPs) are reaching people who would otherwise not get help with their legal problems by community lawyers working in a multi-disciplinary setting. The paper shares her preliminary empirical research findings, case studies and some lessons.The Bendigo HJP project is a partnership between ARC Justice’s Program and Bendigo Community Health Service. The HJP project aims to address the social determinants of health capable of legal redress. The partnership is based on the empirical data which reveals that many vulnerable and disadvantaged people do not consult lawyers for problems instead they see their trusted health worker. An embedded evaluation is being undertaken by Dr. Liz Curran of ANU examining not only the effectiveness of the service but also measuring the social determinants of health. Dr. Curran has a practical background in the community health sector. She is also involved in other HJP evaluations and service start-ups in Australia and Canada. Critically, this evaluation includes the clients and service providers and their experience in its process. This is ethical and ensures the measurements are not remote from the reality of the lives of people the HJP is assisting.The evaluation is gathering qualitative as well as quantitative data so is not a process evaluation. In Australia there is little money for evaluation and services are keen to evaluate. The paper discusses the empirical research which reveals the HJP is reaching community members who are otherwise excluded. Findings include the value of legal secondary consultations in building confidence and capacity of non-legal professionals to assist clients through legal information being readily accessible through consultations with a lawyer.