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The role of non-legal service providers in assisting clients with a legal problem

Consultations for this study suggest that non-legal services provide the following types of assistance to people with a mental illness:

• identification of a legal issue and the provision of preliminary legal information
• referral to legal service providers
• support for a client when they seek legal assistance
• advocacy
• education, training and awareness raising about mental illness.

Identifying legal issues and the provision of preliminary legal information

The only reason we are acting for him is that he has been linked in with us through a youth service that we have very good contact with. So he has accessed a service that is able to identify this as a legal problem and send him over to us and we are able to assist him, otherwise he would just be falling through the net.⁹

Consultations for this study indicate that non-legal service providers play an important role in identifying legal issues for their clients and providing their clients with preliminary information about a legal issue and the process of resolving it.¹⁰ This is important as lack of awareness of legal rights was raised as a barrier to accessing legal assistance in Chapter 4. For example, a solicitor commented that youth workers play an important role in identifying whether one of their clients may have a potential claim for victims compensation:

Usually it is something, in my experience, that comes up through youth workers.¹¹

One participant interviewed for this study was told by a community worker that she may be eligible for victims compensation.¹²

Stakeholders and participants also reported that non-legal service providers can play an important role in the provision of legal information, both on an individual and group level to people with a mental illness.¹³ For example, a social worker commented that when a person is hospitalised they tend to have access to social workers, and that once someone is placed on a compulsory treatment order they are usually allocated a case manager from a community health centre or mental health team. These non-legal service providers can become an important source of information about the legal system.¹⁴

An example of where non-legal workers had provided legal information on a group level was given by a mental health worker from Maroubra Mental Health Centre. This person talked about how Maroubra Mental Health Centre had organised a legal education day for Aboriginal women in partnership with WLS:

They [WLS] came down with all this printed stuff in layman’s terms [about AVOs and wills] … They were fantastic, I have nothing but high praise for them.¹⁵

Referral

It was suggested in consultations that people with a mental illness may not be aware of available legal services.¹⁶ Non-legal workers therefore play an important role in assisting clients with a legal problem by referring them to a legal service provider.¹⁷ This is supported by Genn et al. who found:

General practitioners, religious organisations, social workers or local authority information desks may not be viewed as traditional purveyors of legal services, but their potential role in directing the public to fruitful avenues for problem resolution must be recognised.¹⁸

Service providers were of the opinion that if clients were in contact with non-legal services they had a better chance of finding out about legal services and being referred on.¹⁹

If you think in your mind now about all the clients that you have currently with mental health issues, mine are all referrals. They are not walking into the centre; they are coming from youth centres.²⁰

[How are people referred to CCLC?] We tend to get them from other people. We have had them from community workers, who hand them across.²¹

Two participants reported having been referred by a non-legal service provider to a lawyer:

I went to the resource centre and they told me that they don’t do this sort of thing, and they gave me a number and told me to see the Legal Aid guy.²²

Exodus is probably the best of the lot. They have access to everything, all these different organisations from the law onwards, all these contacts. If you have a problem you go to the office, you tell them what your problem is at the reception, like “I’ve got a legal issue” and they say “Sit down, we’ll go and get our legal person for you”. From there, they refer you either to Legal Aid or somebody else who will tell you what your options are, and you take it from there.²³

Two non-legal services providers commented that assistance to a client may also involve referral to another non-legal service provider who can assist a person with their legal problems (such as a debt problem) or a complaint handling body:

I also put them in contact with the Electricity and Water Ombudsman who is an independent body.²⁴

We do referrals to Lifeline’s credit people and to the Salvation Army credit people.²⁵

Recognising that disadvantaged consumers are more likely to contact a “shop-front agency” (such as Legal Aid or a community organisation) to make a complaint about a consumer issue, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has produced a referral guide for both legal and non-legal community centres on how to make a complaint on behalf of a vulnerable client (which includes people with a mental illness). The referral guide, which has been distributed to over 200 agencies across Australia and is available upon request, allows an agency to refer trade practices conduct that is affecting their clients (such as debt collection or telecommunications selling practices) to the ACCC for regulation and enforcement.²⁶

Supporting a client when they seek legal assistance

As discussed in Chapter 4, people with a mental illness face a number of barriers that may prevent them from being able to contact a legal service and make an appointment to see a lawyer. People with a mental illness may have difficulties keeping appointments or communicating, they may be overwhelmed and/or appear threatening and/or difficult, and they may be affected by the physical environment, which may contribute to feelings of ill-ease and/or agitation. This may be exacerbated by the side effects of medication, which can make a person feel sleepy and cloud their thinking.²⁷ In addition, legal service providers may not be aware of the effects of a mental illness and/or medication on a client and, as a result, may not be aware of their particular needs.

This may mean that, for those clients who require a higher level of support, simply giving them the telephone number of a lawyer is not enough. A lawyer may need to be contacted and an appointment made on their behalf.

I think it is incredibly easy just to refer them out. But I think with mental illness, or anyone that is seriously disadvantaged, that is not going to work because they won’t [take] the referral. So there needs to be more hand-holding. So that means possibly people being able to go between a number of resources and act as a central coordinator to assist that person instead of just a referral. They don’t just ring … [they] make sure they don’t fall through the cracks.²⁸

In addition, people with a mental illness may benefit from someone attending an appointment with them to ensure that they actually get to the appointment, and once there, assist the client in overcoming anxiety and communication problems.²⁹ Consultations for this study suggest that this role depends on the objectives and resources of the non-legal agency (or support person), the capacity of the client and, in some respects, the relationship between the non-legal agency and the legal service provider.

A number of legal services (including CLCs, pro bono services and Legal Aid) interviewed for this study believed that legal services benefit greatly when a non-legal service provider assists a person with a mental illness to have contact with a lawyer.³⁰ First, having a non-legal worker involved can also help to ensure that the client actually makes it to their appointments.³¹ In addition, non-legal services can provide legal services with information about the client’s illness, the effects of medication, their general life circumstances (including how much support they have, what other services are involved) and what their current legal issue is. This information can assist legal service providers to make important judgments about how much support the person may require to remain in the process and how best to work with that particular client. This can be particularly important in cases where a client may not divulge themselves what is going on in their lives and in particular the fact that they have an illness.³²

I personally find it very useful when someone who suffers from a mental illness brings someone else with them. Not because I talk to the other person, but because [they] can put it in context. Sometimes people can’t explain their illness, or the effect of the illness, and it’s helpful to have people who can say “Well this is what the effect is”. If you have some other input, I find that helpful.³³

The mental illness group won’t do things and won’t ring back. So it’s hard without someone who is a social worker saying: “Look you are not going to be able to just say ‘these are the practical steps that you take’, they are not going to do it”. You want someone to be able to tell you that this person needs more help than you would think. That’s the limitation; I have to make judgement calls on very limited information. The more information the better I can make a judgement call on what sort of help they need. Where it works best is where I get a call from the community worker, they go through it with me, they get handed over and I know I can talk to them again. It is extremely difficult to gauge the severity [of mental illness] over the phone. Where it has been successful is where I have had a community worker in the mix.³⁴

I have clients who are very unwell. I acted for one last week [who said],“No my house is fine”. But the reality is that he is not an Australian citizen; he is not eligible for Centrelink; he has no access to money; he has been working up at ‘the wall’; he met somebody who is now funding him if he stays in his house with him, who is 66. So this young person will say to you “No, I live in a comfortable unit, it’s fine”. These sorts of clients are referred to us through youth workers generally, and [if] we have that conversation we get a fairly well-rounded view of what is happening.³⁵

One pro bono solicitor commented that mental health professionals can also assist legal services in determining the most appropriate ways to work with a traumatised client.

I have from time to time spoken to psychiatrists, if I am concerned about approaching [the client]. For example, you get the client’s file that tells you all about what happened to them in the past, and why they were removed [from their families]. You read through it, and you think, there is some horrific stuff in there about the client. You know that the client has a right to read that, but they are very vulnerable. So I have spoken to the psychiatrist about the best approach to taking the client through that.³⁶

In turn, this pro bono solicitor suggested that it was important for lawyers to be aware of support networks to which they could refer clients:

The lawyer needs to be aware of other support services, because these people do come with a number of problems. It’s not just the legal issue that they are dealing with … their whole life could be a complete mess, because of a particular thing that has happened, and they just need a lot of support. So I think having those back-up structures is really relevant, otherwise you can’t do it, you can’t provide the proper service to the client if you are just going to take a legalistic view.³⁷

Advocacy

Consultations for this study indicate that non-legal service providers also advocate on behalf of their clients with a mental illness to other services and to government departments such as Centrelink and DOH.³⁸ The role of advocacy generally “involves the caseworker directly engaging with other service providers on the client’s behalf”.³⁹

We usually do it for them actually; we’ll ring up on their behalf because they’re apprehensive and not knowledgeable of what to say. If the person at the other end said “Sorry, see you later”, they’d probably accept that. In most cases we would probably ring up for them … because we think we might have a better influence in being able to explain the situation.⁴⁰

Consultations for this study indicate that non-legal service providers engage in advocacy in a variety of ways and to varying degrees depending on the complexity of the issue, the role of the service, the resources available to the service, the needs of the client and the individual worker’s background and experience. Advocacy undertaken by non-legal services ranged from calling Centrelink to sort out a payment problem, trying to negotiate with DOH, to advocating on behalf of a client to the police:

We help them before DOH; I have taken them, even in tears, to the [DOH] office, sat them down and said “Look I am the representative from St Vincent de Paul, you can observe that this client of mine is severely depressed and we are speaking on her behalf and this is what we are trying to achieve.”⁴¹

The word just got around that I helped them with a Centrelink problem. So they come to me [and say] “I have got this problem with Centrelink” and I try and iron it out for them.⁴²

He was targeted by the police officer who arrested him and brought him in for an interview a number of times but not charged. Scott’s mental health caseworker actively advocated with police and legal services to assist.⁴³

One participant made the following comment about the assistance provided by caseworkers to people with a mental illness to support them in sorting out their debt problems:

… someone will come in and they’ll have a thousand dollar phone bill, and they’re just falling to pieces because the creditors are coming after them. And they get it sorted here; they [the caseworker] can ring up and they can [organise for the client to] pay it in installments and organise how much they [client] can pay.⁴⁴

Another mental health worker discussed the ways in which she had assisted a client who had had their child removed by DoCS:

We notified DoCS that we believe that the crisis situation has attenuated to the point where the child is safe.⁴⁵

In some specific cases, non-legal services will advocate on behalf of a mentally ill client at tribunal hearings. Caseworkers from the OPC and specialist tenancy workers will advocate on behalf of their clients with a landlord or real estate agent or appear on their behalf at the CTTT if the person is facing eviction.⁴⁶ In cases of discrimination, the OPC may take a complaint to HREOC, or attempt to resolve it directly with the “perpetrator”.⁴⁷

One mental health worker commented that she would also advocate on behalf of a client before the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) to keep them out of hospital:

If I have a client going before the MHRT … I will actually go in there and I will advocate for the client. If I feel that there is enough support out there in the community rather than them being in hospital, I will bring the family in and actually let them explain what we will put in place. We all know what our roles are and what needs to be done, in order to keep somebody out of hospital.⁴⁸

A number of service providers reported that due to the presence of an advocate, the client had a more successful outcome.⁴⁹ For example:

[How much do you think it is because you are there to help the client as opposed to the client walking in themselves and seeking help?] I know for a fact that if the client was present by themselves they would achieve very little. Because of their depressive state because [they are] quite inarticulate, teary [and] helpless. The office staff do not know how to deal with them but if they have an advocate it can be done successfully.⁵⁰

The more effective complaints that I have dealt with, the complainant has actually been accompanied by a support person, and that is either through a community health organization or a charitable organisation.⁵¹

Education, training and awareness raising about mental illness

A couple of non-legal service providers reported conducting general community education about mental illness with community members, the courts and legal services. For example, a consumer advocate participated in an education forum with the local court to inform court staff and magistrates about the effects of mental illness and medication on the ability of a person with a mental illness to participate effectively in the court process.

Some of the things I take for granted now is that some of the people don’t understand [the] effects of medication. Like the fact that [people] get a dry mouth from their medication, or the agitation, [or] someone being heavily sedated and having a court hearing at 8 am the next morning, well they might not be able to get there so they end up with an extra charge. Or people might get up and walk out because they can’t sit still and once again they get in trouble. The magistrate was very pleased to hear that these were common mental health issues. [We] like to educate people on mental health issues.⁵²

In order to help combat and, indeed, prevent licensed boarding house residents from accruing debt with local shop keepers, one community worker spoke to local shop keepers to educate them about the effects of extending credit to some of the people in the area with mental illnesses.

We actually sat down with a number of the shopkeepers locally and said “Don’t extend credit, would you do that for an ordinary person? Then don’t do it for people with disabilities.”⁵³