Vancouver site visits complete; back in Edmonton

I have returned to Edmonton from three absolutely packed weeks of organizational visits, field observation, and interviews in Vancouver. Although I had originally planned to post blog entries about those visits as they happened, my full schedule and research ethics obligations changed my plans.

Beginning within the next week, I will be posting delayed “dispatches” from Vancouver and then some more comprehensive writeups.

Vancouver site visits begin

No juicy research results—just a status note: I’ve arrived in Vancouver, and tomorrow will begin meeting PLE folks here and attending their programs.

PLE vs. public health education on Google

Rather than update the “PLE and public health” entry yet again, I thought I’d simply post this simple chart here. It is, like the PLE web maps, pretty unscientific. But, I’d guess it gives a decently accurate picture of the relative sizes of these two fields.

PLE and public health

UPDATED at bottom

One topic missing from the PLE research I’ve digested so far is the relation of public legal education to public health. In fact, for a long time I wondered if anyone had even thought much about this. Lately, I’ve begun finding a (very) few discussions of the connection.

There are at least two different connections worth exploring:

1. The impact of public legal education and awareness on health.

I’ve found two recent articles from the UK that treat this, both by lead author Pascoe Pleasence, Head of the UK Legal Services Research Centre. Pleasance and his research team conducted a random, nationwide survey and found significant links between civil legal problems and ill health. Among his conclusions are that

The promotion of public awareness of a broad range of legal rights/obligations (through both general public education and basic individual advice) should be regarded as both a justice and public health issue.

PLE organization case studies: update

To anyone waiting with bated breath, etc., for more PLE organizational histories, please pardon a slight delay as I wait to go over my histories with those who can confirm their accuracy. Although I had originally intended to post histories of the BC Legal Services Society and the Law Courts Education Society before leaving for Vancouver on Monday, I believe it’s more important to ensure that the histories present a true picture than to get them up on the blog right away.