UC Berkeley

Legal clinics housed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) help veterans eliminate service access barriers. In this survey of 95 VA-housed legal clinics (70% of clinics), clients legal problems were mainly estate planning, family, obtaining VA benefits, and housing (14-17% of clients). Most clinics rarely interacted with VA health care providers, did not have access to clients VA health care records, and did not track clients VA health care access (58-81% of clinics); 32% did not have dedicated and adequate space. Most clinic staff members were unpaid. Survey findings-that most VA-housed legal clinics do not interact with VA health care or directly address clients mental health and substance use needs, and lack funds to serve fully all veterans seeking services-suggest that VA and community agencies should enact policies that expand and fund veterans legal services and health system interactions to address health inequities and improve health outcomes.