Stan Winford, Lawyer / Legal Projects Officer, Fitzroy Legal Service.

The Drug Outreach Lawyer project was conceived at the Yarra Drug and Health Forum, ^[4] and ultimately received funding in July 2001 under the Victorian Government's Local Drug Strategy Initiatives Grant Scheme, now administered by the Department of Human Services. The local drug strategy funds also supported the establishment of primary health care services, designed specifically for street-based injecting drug users, and were earmarked for communities identified as street drug use 'hot spots.' ^[5] Funds for the grant scheme were, in part, derived from the inability to establish locally based safe injecting facilities after the defeat of supervised drug injecting legislation in late 2000.

Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) was a founding member of the Forum, and based on discussions with Forum members and its own lengthy experience working with people facing a range of legal issues associated with drug dependence and homelessness, FLS saw the necessity for the Drug Outreach Lawyer project. The clear associations found in people experiencing poverty, mental illness, disadvantage, social exclusion, homelessness and drug addiction were no less marked amongst street-based drug users with legal problems and, FLS concluded, it required a local and specific response in order to deal with the problem of providing access to legal assistance to street drug users in Yarra.

The most obvious of these problems were faced by those dealing with the criminal justice system. Lawyers working in this area with FLS had observed an unfortunate pattern resulting from the fact that street drug users facing criminal charges would access legal assistance at a very late stage in the legal process, if at all. Structural and systemic barriers to justice are numerous amongst this group, but can be as simple and obvious as problems maintaining appointments and keeping in contact with lawyers without a fixed residential address or telephone number.

As a result, street users facing criminal charges tended to receive sentences from courts who, faced with little evidence that underlying problems associated with criminal offences had been addressed, cannot be persuaded that the community will be protected from criminal activity by 'soft' rehabilitative sentencing options. Sentencing principles based on escalation of penalty for repeat offenders tend not to recognise the difficulties faced by drug users with little support who, despite efforts to control drug dependence, regularly relapse. ^[6] Punitive or 'tough' sentences based on such principles, in turn, do little more than perpetuate their recipient's marginalised position within the community. ^[7]

FLS considered that by establishing an outreach service, the Drug Outreach Lawyer could assist street-based drug users to obtain legal assistance earlier in the legal process and work towards establishing links with support agencies before sentencing commenced. Access to material support, accommodation, health, drug treatment and counselling and a degree of stability would more readily translate into sentences geared towards rehabilitation rather than mere punishment or deterrence.

While outreach is not a particularly novel concept for delivering legal assistance amongst community legal centres such as FLS, an outreach lawyer whose sole function is to provide assistance to individuals with drug problems who would not normally access agency services, may be unique.

The Drug Outreach Lawyer targets people who have existing or potential substance abuse problems and who are not currently accessing existing legal services. Priority is given to people with high needs such as young people; non-English speaking clients; clients with disabilities (including acquired brain injury); clients with 'dual diagnosis' (drug/alcohol and psychiatric conditions); homeless people and those residing in rooming houses or public housing. The Drug Outreach Lawyer focuses on clients with 'chaotic' lifestyles and others excluded from conventional legal services for reasons such as discrimination, lack of access to legal aid or an inability to pay for legal services, and cultural background.

The Drug Outreach Lawyer provides legal advice, referral, advocacy and casework services as a means of reducing legal problems faced by drug users, thus assisting rehabilitation and minimising harm and stigma associated with street drug use. By targeting people with existing or potential substance dependence problems the Drug Outreach Lawyer seeks to provide appropriate legal support and education to minimise street drug users' vulnerability to exploitation, negative contact with the criminal justice system and to enhance their opportunities for rehabilitation and treatment.

The Drug Outreach Lawyer combines a mix of outreach advice clinics, seminars, street outreach and court work, often in collaborative partnerships with health services, needle exchanges and drug and alcohol workers. An important means of reaching target clients has been to link clinics with existing drug treatment agency services. Outreach legal clinics have been piloted, evaluated and then permanently established in perceived areas of high need, having regard to the priorities outlined above. Clinic locations are regularly evaluated to ensure that the service responds to the shifts in patterns of drug use and user access that inevitably occur.

To date, outreach advice clinics have been conducted from the premises of a number of agencies in Yarra who provide support to drug users: the Youth Substance Abuse Service day program, the Melbourne Inner City Needle Exchange, the Next Door Primary Health Service, Buoyancy, St Mary's House of Welcome, the Church of All Nations drop in centre and at other locations on request. Appointments are not necessary at outreach clinics - typically attendance is for a two-hour period and clinics are scheduled to coincide with the provision of free food or other attractions to maximise numbers.

Another method of ensuring access for drug users is street-based outreach work. Street outreach is conducted in conjunction with outreach workers from the Youth Substance Abuse Service and through the North Richmond Community Health Service, who cover different areas of Yarra on different days and times. Areas covered during street outreach include housing estates and surrounding streets in North Richmond, Fitzroy (Atherton Gardens) and Collingwood on a weekly basis, and on occasions the Carlton housing estate.

Once contact with clients has been established and additional support secured, ongoing work in the preparation of legal matters may not need to continue as outreach. While much of the advocacy and legal representation work is undertaken by the Drug Outreach Lawyer, involvement in outreach and other duties means that some more complex cases are referred to bodies such as Victoria Legal Aid, barristers and other legal firms.

Part of the Drug Outreach Lawyer role is to provide community legal education; usually, talks or information sessions delivered to users and audiences including social workers and drug and alcohol workers on topics such as 'drugs and the law' are provided regularly from outreach and non-outreach locations.

Law reform and community development initiatives are also a key component of the Drug Outreach Lawyer's role. Legal issues occurring repeatedly amongst the street drug user community result in attention being devoted to broader, policy-based solutions. Proposed legislation to make discrimination against drug users legitimate and the response of the criminal justice system and the legislature to 'chroming' are a couple of recent examples of such issues addressed in collaboration with other organisations and individuals working in related fields.

The unique approach of the Drug Outreach Lawyer has so far proved to be a most effective means of facilitating access to justice for many of those people who have traditionally been marginalised within our legal system.

Independent evaluations of this project and complementary projects such as primary health care services have reported success, concluding that unmet need within the community is being met and that projects such as the Drug Outreach Lawyer hold out considerable promise as initiatives to improve the health and welfare of street-based drug users. Evaluations have also found that these services are well regarded and well-utilised by the client group. ^[8]

Finally, the Drug Outreach Lawyer project shows that the use of outreach strategies and other methods rarely implemented by lawyers can create a legal resource adaptable to the needs of clients with complex needs who face systemic barriers to accessing the law. It may not be an exaggeration to suggest that many people's lives have been improved, and much potential for harm significantly reduced by the establishment of this project.