Ever since mental health was identified as a key area of impact for health justice partnerships (Joining the Dots, 2019), Health Justice Australia has been identifying ways that legal help can play a much-needed and useful role in mental health services and settings. Recently, we joined with First Step Legal, a health justice partnership addressing the legal issues that create stress and compromise rehabilitation and recovery of those dealing with mental health and addiction issues, to propose the inclusion of legal help with the design of a national model for Adult Mental Health Hubs.
These hubs are intended to provide integrated care for people with severe and persistent mental health problems and are regarded as the adult equivalent of headspace. While the Australian Government has committed to piloting 8 of these centres initially, they are anticipated to grow to 20 in the short-term and Minister for Health the Hon. Greg Hunt has suggested their eventual rollout could reach 100 centres across the country.
Our recommendations
Our recommendations to the advisory group developing the model were received positively as we drew on evidence of the link between unmet legal need and poor mental health to assert the importance of integrating legal help in mental health services. The next step in this process is likely to be a public, online consultation. We strongly encourage health justice practitioners to engage with this consultation as a key avenue through which we could begin to see health funding to support the integration of legal help in healthcare teams and settings – so stay tuned for further information from us about that!
This advocacy drew on our established relationship with First Step Legal and was a key insight into the role that Health Justice Australia can play in advancing policy recommendations informed by the work of health justice partnerships. We are currently developing our policy advocacy strategy and will be coming to the health justice practitioner network for input in the coming months. In the meantime, we welcome suggestions from our network about ways we can continue to bolster the leadership of health justice services through our own advocacy for reform.
