Study Looks at Integration of Health Care and Legal Service Providers

Listening to UBC Nursing Professor Judy Lynam (MSN ‘82) talk about community-based health research and inner city communities, it’s easy for even the non expert to see the following: providing primary health care can’t be separated from social and material circumstances in which children and their families live. With that in mind, Dr. Lynam’s current focus is examining how structural violence and the legal system play a role in the health of children and their families, particularly in communities where access to, and understanding of, those systems is low or non-existent. The Vancouver Foundation has funded a grant for a research project, led by Dr. Lynam and involving a team of experts, called “Health and Human Rights: A Medical-Legal Pilot Study”.

In its most basic description, a Medical Legal Partnership (MLP) recognizes that for vulnerable populations, adequate access to legal services is a vital component to being healthy. It requires a formal – not random – integration of health care and legal service providers in the communities where such services are needed.

Dr. Lynam and her team have a solid basis for this study through her experience with the RICHER (Responsive Intersectoral Children’s Health, Education, and Research) Initiative. This program provides primary health care services specifically designed to meet the unique needs of children, youth, and families in Vancouver’s inner city neighbourhoods, specifically Grandview/Woodlands, Strathcona, and the Downtown Eastside. Many families that the RICHER team cares for are involved in the child protection system, or have been involved in the past. Health care providers are seeing families who lack basic knowledge of their legal rights (such as how to access legal aid, or interpretation services) and how the child protection system works. Other families are dealing with legal problems related to housing or tenancy issues that can have an effect on their health.

“Building on the interdisciplinary partnerships that we’ve established with RICHER, we want to create new and structured ways of working together using the expertise and resources that exist,” says Prof. Lynam. “This doesn’t have to be an expensive solution.”

The study’s partner organization is the Network of Inner City Community Services Society (NICCSS) and will draw on the knowledge of a research team that bring expertise in pediatrics, nursing, legal education, community services, and health policy. The team will share its study findings through a variety of channels, including a community education forum and a provincial workshop with participation from BC health authorities, clinicians, community members, representatives from provincial ministries with responsibility for health and social services.

For information about RICHER visit: www.bcchildrens.ca and to learn more about NICSS visit: www.niccss.ca.