LawWorks Clinic Round Table Law School Clinics and Measuring Health Impacts: Experiences from the UCL Centre for Access to Justice

What are we trying to do: Student legal clinic based in a Health Centre in Newham Offers advice, casework, and representation in primarily housing and benefits Model is currently flexible: Open on drop-in, appointment, or referral (from GP) basis Longer term research project looking at the impact of advice on health.

Challenges and Considerations Research vs Service Evaluation Why is this question important? What are the implications? Ethics Patient Wellbeing

Is it research? Are you asking questions you wouldn’t normally ask in providing a service? Are you trying to establish generalisable findings? Do you want to publish this information in peer reviewed journals or as a REF submission? If the answer is yes: then this is research and will require ethics approval

Ethics UNIVERSITIES wishing to conduct research will need to go through their individual ethics committees. Generally you will need to submit copies of your consent forms, detailed research protocols, and a research participation information sheet Students should be trained on taking informed consent

What can you get out of a service evaluation: Anything you can pull out of your case files and information gathered as part of your normal service provision: Legal Needs Client demographics Types of health issues, prevalence of health issues

Examples of Service Evaluation Data: Table 11 Employment in those with health related legal problems   Frequency Ratio Unable to work 9 47% Unemployed and looking for work 3 16% Full time 2 11% Part time Looking after family at home 1 5% Unknown Total 19 Health Problem Reported Count Anxiety 11 28% Chronic Pain (back, pelvis, arthritis, headaches, fibromyalgia) 8 21% Depression 7 18% Neurological 3 8% Stroke 2 5% Cardiovascular 1 3% Respiratory GI Cancer Diabetes OCD Personality Disorder Disabled Schizophrenia 0% Bipolar Total 39 Table 10 Health related legal problem   Frequency Ratio Physical & Mental Health 8 25% Mental Health 7 22% Physical Health 3 9% Not related to health 14 44%

If you want to incorporate health into your clinic: Be clear on if you are doing research or service evaluation. What are you trying to achieve? If in doubt, contact your University’s Ethics Committee Have a policies in place and ensure students are briefed well.