Health Justice Partnerships in NSW: Position paper

Health justice partnerships (HJPs) are early intervention programs. Recognising the complexity of disadvantage, they occupy the space where health and social justice issues overlap. Providing integrated, person-centred services, HJPs work with individuals to overcome structural barriers that negatively impact on a person’s quality of life and to advocate for systemic change. Although there isn’t a clear causality, the relationship between unmet legal need and adverse health outcomes is thought to be mutually reinforcing. On the one hand, chronic illness or disability can cause barriers to accessing legal assistance and can compound social disadvantage. On the other hand, unaddressed legal issues can cause stress and anxiety contributing to mental and physical ill health1. By taking a holistic approach, HJPs remove the need to draw a distinction between legal and health issues. In its evaluation report, Redfern Legal Centre describe the interrelated nature of health and legal issues for one of their clients: “Aron was in the MERIT program. He told his counsellor that he was having difficulty in paying back his loan under a Financial Management Order. He told his counsellor that his drug use was increasing due to the stress and anxiety about the debt, which was also increasing due to default fees and other charges. He was referred to the solicitor who found that as Aron was under a Financial Management Order, legally he was unable to deal with his own finances. The loan should never have been given and as such was voided through our advocacy. He reported saying that his stress had decreased significantly, and therefore his drug use.”2 By working together through an HJP the health and legal services are able to improve the negative physical and psychosocial factors which jointly impact the health of the individual, and alleviate the strain on the healthcare and legal systems