First Step Legal are very excited to share with you the outcomes of their robust two-and-a-half-year evaluation conducted in partnership with the University of Melbourne. This evaluation encompasses all five of First Step Legal’s health justice partnerships.

First Step Legal works with both medical and clinical staff at First Step but is also in health-justice partnership with Windana Residential Rehabilitation, Better Health Network, St Kilda Road Clinic (part of Alfred Health), and Launch Housing. Within each health justice partnership, First Step Legal delivers its legal services onsite to achieve positive legal outcomes and, to enable cohesive collaboration with its multidisciplinary partners toward the achievement of incremental, whole-of-life improvements for its clients.

The evaluation demonstrates that bringing integrated legal help to particularly marginalised, vulnerable people wherever they present for help, increases their subjective assessment of their personal wellbeing by 21% over a 12-month period. Our work brings our clients 12 points closer to the general population's average personal wellbeing score of 75, and reduces experiences of unemployment, financial disadvantage, family violence, homelessness, and acute mental health admissions.

Significantly, clients’ vulnerability across a range of measures decreased substantially during the evaluation period inclusive of a 79% decrease in risk or experience of family violence, 37% decrease in risk or experience of homelessness, 68% reduction in acute mental health presentations and 30% reduction in emergency department admissions.

At a time when government is searching for solutions to complex, intersecting human problems across multiple service domains, First Step Legal’s outcome evaluation provides clear evidence of the benefits of integrated legal help. Across mental health, substance use, family violence and homelessness settings, an embedded lawyer adds enormous value to both clients and staff.

Here is a summary of key findings: link. The full academic report is available on request.