In our work on income security at ISAC, we know that unmet legal needs can harm people’s health. Unsafe working conditions can lead to illness or injury. Members of marginalized groups may face discrimination in the workplace, worsening mental health. Being cut off from social assistance means people may be unable to afford medications and healthy food. The relationship between income security, employment, and health is pervasive. It works in both directions, with these social conditions affecting health, and health in turn affecting a person’s ability to support themselves.
The relationship between health and justice inspired three of ISAC’s staff lawyers to co-author chapters in a new book, Health-Harming Legal Needs: A Guide for Canadian Primary Care Clinicians, edited by Rami Shoucri and Jennifer Stone (University of Toronto Press). In chapters on Work and Health (Nabila F. Qureshi); Income, Social Benefits, and Health (Anu Bakshi); and, Common Legal Issues Affecting People Living with HIV/AIDS (Robin Nobleman, written in her former role at the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario), the authors provide practical guidance to primary health care providers to bridge the gap between health and legal issues.
In their practices, primary care providers constantly see the upstream causes of poor health. The conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age are called the social determinants of health. It’s sometimes difficult for health care providers to help patients with problems related to these upstream causes, but knowing how to identify them and offer effective referrals is crucial to prevent or help resolve high-risk situations for patients.
Legal practitioners can often target the causes of poor health by working to prevent or resolve legal issues, or by using the law to enforce the rights and interests of marginalized people. For example, legal practitioners can enforce workplace safety laws, appeal a social assistance denial, or take legal action against a discriminatory employer. This is exactly the type of work ISAC and Ontario’s other community legal clinics do. You might say legal clinics practice “social determinants of health law”. By improving people’s living conditions, legal clinics can also improve their health.
Health-Harming Legal Needs: A Guide for Canadian Primary Clinicians is an important text that strengthens connections between the health and justice sectors in Canada by building knowledge and capacity among primary care providers. ISAC plans to continue its work on health equity as an active participant in Ontario’s growing health justice movement.