Recently Published

December 2023

A recent Health+Law article has been published in the Journal of Law and Medicine, The Legal Needs of People Living with a Sexually Transmissible Infection or Blood-Borne Virus: Perspectives From a Sample of the Australian Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Workforce, authored by David J Carter, Benjamin Riley, Rhys Evans, Adel Rahmani, Anthea Vogl, Alexandra Stratigos, James J Brown, Hamish Robertson and Joanne Travaglia.

The article presents new and important information on the legal needs and experiences happening at the clinical interface, which has not been understood in detail previously. The abstract is available below:

Law and the legal environment are important factors in the epidemiology and prevention of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and blood-borne viruses (BBVs). However, there has been no sustained effort to monitor the legal environment surrounding STIs and BBVs. This article presents the first data on the incidence and impacts of unmet legal needs for those affected by an STI or BBV in Australia using a survey administered to a sample of the Australian sexual health and BBV workforce. Migration, Housing, Money/ Debt, Health (including complaints about health services), and Crime (accused/offender) were reported as the five most common legal need areas, with 60% of respondents describing these legal problems as generating a “severe” impact on health. These results indicate that unmet legal needs generate significant negative impacts in terms of individual health, on public health, and the ability to provide sustainable services such as testing and treatment to those facing unmet legal needs.

The article is available through the Journal of Law and Medicine via Westlaw here.

January 2024 Update:
An open access version of the article is now available here and through the publications page.