International research for more than two decades has documented the health harming effects of unmet legal needs. There is growing evidence of links between law and health demonstrating that social and economic problems with a legal dimension can exacerbate or create ill-health and that conversely, ill-health can create legal problems.
Barriers to justice is often due to people receiving poor information, employer intimidation, lack of access to legal counsel, language barriers, and unfamiliarity with procedures. Many disadvantaged migrants and refugees with language and cultural barriers avoid seeking legal assistance, and fall through the gaps in the system as they do not have the legal literacy or understanding of the system to navigate it successfully.
Our pro-active social health model addresses the social determinants of health which create adverse health outcomes such as housing, employment, legal, family violence, discrimination, language and cultural barriers in an embedded wraparound model of care. Evidence shows that the health of migrants and refugees are socially determined to a greater extent than the Australia-born population and working within a human rights-based framework we have a strong focus on advocacy and social justice for our clients.