NEWS
The Scottish Legal Aid Board and Fife Rights Forum have announced the launch of a new project aimed at providing specialist legal advice to clients with mental health issues, in Fife. With funds made available by the Scottish Executive under Part V of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 , the Scottish Legal Aid Board has appointed Claudia Albrecht to work with Fife Rights Forum and Citizens Advice and Rights Fife to respond to the identified lack of access to specialist legal advice on mental health issues in Fife, as well as the documented increase in demand for such services following the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.
Joe MacIntyre, Co-ordinator of Fife Rights Forum explains;
“We applied to the Scottish Legal Aid Board for funding, following reports from a number of advice agencies in Fife that the lack of access to specialised legal advice was a serious barrier to providing support to people with mental health issues. It was felt that this lack of access was proving to be particularly detrimental for children and young people with mental health issues and has led to a situation where many agencies find themselves ‘muddling through’, often on the basis of second hand advice. The appointment of a Part V solicitor is a great step forward and will enable advice agencies to better serve clients and be more able to achieve the high standards of care they set themselves”.
The “Part V” solicitor will be funded initially for two years and will cover the whole of Fife, based at Citizens Advice and Rights Fife in Dunfermline. She will take on their own specialist legal aid casework as well as provide a secondary advice service to advice and rights staff. In addition, the solicitor will also be responsible for the delivery of an advice agency training programme that will look at common legal issues pertaining to mental health and should result in advice agency staff being better equipped, in the long-term, to deal with mental health issues involving legal advice.
Claudia Albrecht who is the Solicitor employed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, comments;
“The Board is delighted to be supporting this innovative legal advice project which will open up access to legal advice by delivering services in new and different ways and in non-traditional settings. I am delighted to be joining Fife Rights Forum and look forward to improving the availability of legal advice for clients and agencies dealing with mental health issues.”
“I look forward to working with my colleagues in the commercial legal sector in Fife to highlight specialist areas of knowledge they may have that would be of help in dealing with mental health issues and to work with them in developing expertise and understanding in this area. With improved communication and co-operation between agencies and the commercial sector we can hope to increase accessibility and availability of such services to the benefit of vulnerable clients across the region”.
The Part V solicitor will also have access to Alienation Design's FORT system, officially launched Friday 12 th May 2006. The first of its kind in the UK, FORT will allow clients to be referred online from one advice agency (statutory or voluntary) to any other advice agency. It gives agencies access to the Fife Rights Forum Directory, (containing information and contact details of over 230 Fife-based advice and rights agencies) and coupled with the online referral system, should allow them to more efficiently identify appropriate specialist services for clients as well as speed up referral procedures and improve accountability. The FORT system will enable the Part V solicitor to offer clients a more comprehensive and holistic service, and has the potential to help deal with some of the underlying causes of an immediate legal issue. It will also be part of the Part V solicitor’s remit to encourage more private legal firms to join and access the FORT system in an effort foster a spirit of co-operation, encourage referrals and increase choice.
Joe MacIntyre concludes;
“Both the Part V project and the FORT system have the potential to change the Fife advice agency landscape forever, and for the better. Through our partnership with the Scottish Legal Aid Board, we aim to create a network of solicitors better trained in mental health issues, willing to take cases on and who will work in close co-operation with advice and rights agencies. The agencies themselves will have a better understanding of how to progress mental health issues involving legal advice and there should be an increased awareness among non - mental health specific agencies on the legal aspects of mental health issues. We will have improved sources of information on legal aspects of mental health and increased involvement of commercial legal services in both the Fife Rights Forum and the Fife Wide signposting and referral framework”.
www.alienationfort.co.uk
www.fiferights.org
www.slab.org.uk
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