For the past decade, inTouch Womens Legal Centre has been partnering with Monash Health to provide holistic support for domestic violence victims attending hospitals.
Migrant women experiencing domestic violence are given legal advice, and linked to inTouch case managers, recovery groups, housing, refuges and financial support.
Yasmin Ildes, managing lawyer at inTouch Womens Legal Centre, says potentially the only time a patient client is alone is when they’re at what the perpetrator partner thinks is a health appointment.
“The Health Justice Partnership model creates a trusted bridge to legal help.
“It reaches clients who may never walk into a legal service.”
The multilingual and culturally-safe service provides early intervention for vulnerable communities – the vast majority (91 per cent) speaking a language other than English, she says.
Migrant and refugee women face complex challenges such as isolation, fear of deportation, stigma, cultural pressure and a lack of legal rights as well as pregnancy and children.
Most of their clients are between 25-49 years old, endure financial disadvantage and are homeless or at risk of homelessness.
They also experience higher rates of mental illness or disability.
Ildes gave an example of how the partnership helped a heavily pregnant woman Suzanna, who was on a temporary visa with no family support in Australia.
Suzanna told her hospital social worker about experiences of family violence, who in turn gets in touch with an inTouch lawyer.
With advice from inTouch, the social worker was guided on targeted questions to ask about the patient’s visa status and eligibility for permanent residency as a victim of family violence.
A lawyer helped Suzanna lodge an application for permanent residency.
She was offered a case manager from the same background and who spoke the same language.
The lawyer and case manager worked together on child protection and housing support issues.
The 10-year milestone of the partnership was marked with Dandenong MP Gabrielle Williams at Dandenong Hospital on Friday 15 August.
In that time, referrals have risen from 18 per year to 65. The importance of early intervention became more apparent, and trust built with multicultural communities.
The partnership is looking to expand within Monash Health, and to educate more health professionals on how to spot “legal risk”, Ildes says.
“Mainstream systems often fail to meet the needs of migrant women.
“Real change happens when services meet women where they are — not where the system expects them to be.”
