The Mental Health Legal Services Project (MHLSP)

People with mental illness often have an invisible or diminished role in the community, not least when it comes to accessing justice. From an inability to find a lawyer when needed through to not knowing their legal rights, people with mental illness face significant and unacceptable barriers to justice.

Through the Mental Health Legal Services Project, PIAC is working to identify and remove these barriers and facilitate sustainable, systemic change.

PIAC has developed four pilot projects and two training modules to promote and implement legal solutions for people with mental illness. PIAC's emphasis is on prevention, early intervention and working holistically and collaboratively within a social inclusion framework.

Pilot Projects

• A social work service at Shopfront Youth Law Centre, Darlinghurst, provides case management and care coordination for Shopfront's homeless, mentally ill clients. Previously, Shopfront's lawyers lacked the resources to negotiate and co-ordinate non-legal essential services for their clients such as housing, medical and employment support, which are critical to achieving positive, sustainable outcomes.

• A legal support service at the Multicultural Disability Advocacy Association (MDAA), Harris Park, provides legal information, advice, referral and casework services for mentally ill clients, as people of non-English speaking backgrounds are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to having their legal needs met. The solicitor works with MDAA's advocates, increasing their skills and knowledge about how the law works in NSW.

• An indigenous men's support service at the Gamarada Men's Healing Program, Redfern, provides Aboriginal men with the opportunity to heal from trauma as the basis for working on their legal and other issues. The Access to Justice worker is facilitating connections between these men, the Gamarada Program and legal, health and community services. This fulfils recommendations of the Bringing them home report on the best ways to break the nexus between Indigenous men and the criminal justice system.

• A legal support service at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS), Carramah, provides legal information, advice, advocacy, casework and referral services for refugee clients who have mental illnesses and related complex needs. Culture, language and the traumatic backgrounds of these clients make them vulnerable to being the victims of crime or committing crime, while also limiting their capacity to protect their own legal rights. A key aim is to strengthen the working relationships between STARTTS and local community and existing legal services.

The Mental Health Legal Services Project training modules

• How to Sort Out Your (Pre) Legal Problems gives people with mental illness the opportunity to build their skills, knowledge and confidence on legal matters. This training includes:
  - rights and responsibilities when it comes to re-paying debts and fines
  - how to make complaints about workers in health, community and legal services
  - what you need to know when working with a lawyer.
  
• How to Work with Consumers gives lawyers practical 'how-to' tips when working with people with mental illness. This training includes:
  - communicating with consumers
  - understanding capacity issues
  - applying the Mental Health Act 2007 (NSW)
  - dealing with difficult situations.
  

PIAC continues to work on identifying ways to reduce the barriers to justice faced by people with mental illness. In January 2009, PIAC held an Independent Mental Health Advocacy Forum; from that it established a working group, which has proposed two independent mental health advocacy pilot projects for further development.

Funding, research and evaluation

Legal Aid NSW, with PIAC, has funded the Mental Health Legal Services Project. In 2009, this has been supplemented by a grant from the Federal Attorney General. The NSW Public Purpose Fund funds the pilot projects and training modules.

In developing the program, PIAC undertook a comprehensive literature review, extensive community consultation and liaison with prospective service partners. PIAC has based the models on research evidence that shows access to justice for people with a mental illness requires matching individual needs to integrated models of service delivery. Key reports informing the development of the project include:

• On the Edge of Justice (Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, 2006)
• Access to Justice (The Law and Justice Foundation, 2003)
• Bringing them home (Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, 1997).