After 10 years as the Director of Legal Aid Western Australia’s Civil Law Division, Justin Stevenson is hanging up his hat to enjoy a well-deserved retirement on a few acres of Perth’s finest. Justin was one of the founding WA members of Health Justice Australia’s practitioner network and participated in our national conference, Health Justice 2019. Health Justice Australia’s Partnerships Director Lottie Turner sat down with Justin to hear some of his parting reflections on health justice partnership.
Lottie: For our non-legal audience, tell us more about your role as Civil Law Director at LA WA?
Justin: I am responsible for delivering a diverse range of civil law legal aid services throughout WA, managing staff and also working collaboratively with the executive management team at LAWA. I also manage 2 regional LAWA offices – the Pilbara office and the Indian Ocean Territories service. The civil law legal aid service is very broad. I am passionate about HJPs, but there is also a Social Inclusion Program that delivers holistic, focused and intensive legal assistance in complex civil law matters. And then there is our Seniors Rights and Advocacy Service (combating elder abuse), the Mortgage Hardship Service, Work and Development Permit Service, AAT advice service, Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Self-represented Litigants Service, NDIS Appeals team, general civil law advice service, civil law case work on grants of legal aid, Disability Royal Commission and some other equally important things like natural disaster legal assistance.
Lottie: What was the hook that got you interested in health justice partnership?
Justin: Many years ago I became frustrated with legal practice and decided to try a career that was in one of the caring professions and to my mind, more practical than the law. So I commenced a nursing degree and did the initial 4 weeks’ prac in the RBH (Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital). I told nobody that I was a lawyer. I was amazed though at how patients would start telling me about their legal problems. That was my insight into how HJPs can work – where patients/clients are sharing this information to a nursing student. I realised then that a lawyer is needed here too! As it happened, I stayed in the law and developed a very strong interest in access to justice. I feel very strongly that HJPs are a great example of working in partnership to reach more people in the community and ultimately deliver services that can improve both health and wellbeing.
Lottie: What are you most proud of in your HJP journey?
Justin: At our annual professional development event, I chaired a panel session featuring our HJP with Next Step-East Perth Drug and Alcohol Services. When the session was over I quietly watched the way our lawyer interacted with her HJP colleagues. What I saw felt like true partnership – a shared concern for clients and consumers, respectful dialogue and a multidisciplinary approach to improving health and justice outcomes.
Lottie: What’s been your hardest learnt lesson in HJP advocacy in WA?
Justin: The hardest learnt lesson has been facing and overcoming a legislative barrier to the implementation of HJPs with Health Service Providers in WA. Fortunately, an amendment to the Health Services Act is now progressing through the upper house in WA which will remove that barrier and make HJP development in WA more attainable.
Lottie: You leave a shining legacy of the leadership that is needed to sustain HJP. What do you think is next for the health justice movement in WA?
Justin: The Health Services Amendment Bill will finally pass the WA Parliament! The work that has been done to operationalise HJPs will crystallise and MOUs will be entered into.
More established HJPs like Next Step – East Perth will continue to mature and provide targeted service delivery and mutual support – for example the current focus is on supporting Next Step – East Perth to become a sponsor and to enable some consumers engaging with Next Step – East Perth to have new Work and Development Permits approved as a way to reduce unpaid court fines debt.
New HJPs will flourish with the help of passionate partners who are champions for the HJP model and who work continuously to build trust and rapport. There will be a desire to align some new HJPs with client groups or communities of vulnerable people such as the elderly and new migrants.
