Law Week 2022 offered Ruah Legal Services and the Mental Health Law Centre the opportunity to showcase ‘One Ruah’. We were pleased to host a series of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) events at the WA Museum Boola Bardip for the legal profession.
Our three in-person seminars sold out quickly, however we were able to offer a Livestream platform, so welcomed over 100 people on the day. Our CPD events covered the spectrum of our integrated service model, offering, family and domestic violence legal support, child protection services, and criminal and mental health law.
Our panel discussion “Trauma Informed Lawyering” offered us the perfect platform to officially launch of new Family and Domestic Violence Service. This specialised services team comprises three family and domestic violence lawyers, teamed up with support workers from our Family Services team.
The team works with clients who have experienced family and domestic violence, providing legal advice and representation as well as the psychosocial support they need throughout the process.
The integration of our services allows us to deliver a seamless, multidisciplined approach to women and their families offering legal advice, Family Violence Restraining Order assistance, and court representation, whilst also supporting them through their trauma recovery and assisting them to rebuild safe, healthy lives.
Session two for the day was titled “Attachment Theory in Child Protection Proceedings”. Prior to Social Worker and Child Welfare expert Dr Celine Harrison’s presentation on “Attachment Theory Meets Child Protection Decision Making. Messages from the Literature”, we presented a brief overview of some of the evaluation data from our Care and Protection service model.
Ruah Legal Services Care and Protection service model was launched at last year’s Law Week. The Care and Protection service model is the first of its kind in WA – combining a lawyer and a case worker to intensively support clients through Care and Protection proceedings, particularly parents experiencing a mental health illness.
