• Lack of access to legal advice on mental health issues found to be particularly significant for children and young people in Fife
• Launch of Fife Online Referral Tracking System (FORT) aimed at improving the referral system between advice agencies

The Scottish Legal Aid Board and Fife Rights Forum today (Friday 12 th May) 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 the Fife Online Referral Tracking ( FORT) system, officially launched today (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 200 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”.

-Ends-

For further information contact :

Fife Rights Forum

Nancy Barrett Tel : 01592 413 610 Email : nancy.barrett@fife.gov.uk

Joe MacIntyre Mob: 07951 97 25 25. Email : joe.macintyre@fife.gov.uk Web : www.fiferightsforum.org

Scottish Legal Aid Board

Katie Ronald Mob: 07908 61 64 62

Editor’s Notes

• The Part V project will be managed by a cross agency steering group consisting of representatives from;
  • Citizens Advice and Rights Fife
  • Penumbra in Fife (Focused on Youth/Mental Health issues)
  • Fife Families Support Project
  • Fife Council Social Work Mental Health Team
  • NHS Fife
  • Fife Advocacy
  • Fife Rights Forum
    
• Day to day Management will lie with Citizens Advice and Rights Fife (CARF).

• Under Part V projects, the Scottish Legal Aid Board employs the solicitor who works in the advice organisation. The Scottish Executive funding meets the costs of the solicitors and running costs of the projects, such as administration.

• Legal aid allows people who would not otherwise be able to afford it to get help for their legal problems. Legal aid and advice and assistance can only be accessed through a solicitor. The Board’s mission is to promote the development and delivery of appropriate access to quality legal assistance for those eligible, in a cost-effective manner. In 2003-2004 £146 million was spent on providing legal aid.

• For more information, visit the Board's website www.slab.org.uk or www.fiferightsforum.org

Case Studies

The following cases studies are split into two sections, the first four are real examples facing mental health agencies in Fife. The following three are hypothetical situations likely to arise as a result of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) ( Scotland) Act 2003 .

Case One

Mrs. Anderson had two young children and a husband diagnosed with bipolar disorder, who stopped taking his medication and subsequently became very high.  He did not believe himself to be high, and so did not seek or accept help.  He was not, apparently a danger to himself or others, but he managed to run up substantial debts and made some precarious investments.  Mrs. Anderson came to us at her wit’s end – the immediate bit was how could she stop the family getting into bigger debt.  The later issue would be that if her husband became well again and/or got treatment, how could she prove that the contracts he had entered into were made at a time when he was actually incapable of making those kinds of rational decisions?  As an agency we did not what was the best advice to give or even in what direction to point her.  Having more knowledge might have enabled us to reassure her sooner about possible roads out of this mess and allowed us to speedily put her in touch with someone who could help.

Case Two

Mr. and Mrs. Brown’s daughter had schizophrenia with a slight learning disability – she was a chain smoker and without support, would have spent most of her money on cigarettes.  Mr. and Mrs. Brown wanted to leave some money in their will to their daughter, but did not want it either to be whittled away on buying cigarettes.  They had read the booklet on wills and trusts produced by the National Schizophrenia Fellowship ( Scotland) and had come to the conclusion that setting up a discretionary trust might be a good way forward.  This would require the services of a solicitor, but we did not know what solicitors might be particularly skilled or interested in this kind of work.  As a result, choosing a solicitor was pretty much a lottery – the network that would exist under this funding proposal would have resolved that.

Case Three

Mr. Clark’s son killed himself after a long struggle with schizophrenia.  We supported Mr. Clark in speaking to professionals and service managers in an attempt to understand how this had happened and whether or not it could have been prevented.  This included going with Mr. Clark to see a solicitor as he wondered if staff had been negligent in their care of his son.  Choosing a solicitor was a lottery as we did not know who was specifically skilled or interested in mental health issues, and it transpired that if we had known a bit more about the standard process involved we might have been able to advise Mr. Clark that the legal road was not an appropriate one in this situation.  We did help Mr. Clark come to terms with what had happened eventually, but again, if this network had been in place, we could have spared him some unnecessary additional strain.

Case Four

Mrs. Davidson’s son was diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia and was also a heavy user of alcohol.  He had asked his elderly mother to come and live with him for support and she had done so, for a number of years.  The relationship was often volatile and one day he threw his mother out.  She had belongings in the house, but as the house was his, he refused to let her in to get the belongings.  After discussion he agreed to let her in, but no one else.  She, by this time, was frightened to go into the house on her own.  He would not budge from this position and we were completely ignorant as to what rights, if any, she had in this situation.  An easily accessible reference point for legal advice from someone who also understood the complexities of mental health issues would have been useful.