The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto has added a "triage lawyer" to its team to offer legal assistance to patients and families in need of free legal help.

The Family Legal Health program — a first of its kind in Canada — aims to address non-medical issues that impact a child's health or a family's capacity to care for their sick child, said Dr. Ted McNeill, director of social work and child life at Sick Kids.

"We know there is a definite need for this kind of resource," McNeill said. "Some of the solutions that need to be found for kids and families who are in some of the most difficult social circumstances are legal."

Providing low-income families access to legal assistance will alleviate some of the stresses that kids and families experience to improve their health and well-being, he said.

The medical-legal partnership is based on U.S. models and is a partnership between Sick Kids and Pro Bono Law Ontario.

Since an onsite lawyer arrived at the hospital in the spring, there have been about 30 referrals each month.

If need be, the lawyer will meet with families at the child's bedside and can refer families to pro bono lawyers or other legal services.

Cases have involved immigration issues, family-law issues related to custody or child support, problems related to health-care coverage, and housing problems where a landlord refuses to address mould concerns of asthmatic patients, McNeill said.

Cindy and Jeff Desbiens sought legal help after the Canada Revenue Agency denied their claim for more than $12,000 related to expenses incurred from travelling between Waterloo, Ont. and Sick Kids to be with their daughter who was born with a congenital heart disease.

Their hospital social worker referred them to the program and a lawyer helped them get reimbursed for their expenses.

"We had a lot that we were worrying about at the time," Cindy said. "To have that help available to us through Pro Bono Law Ontario, it just took one thing off of our plate."

Wendy Miller, director of the Family Legal Health Program said having a "triage lawyer" onsite allows parents to focus on their child.

"To not have legal advocacy is to not be doing everything that you can for these families," Miller said. "The social determinants of health, the things that are non-medical, but nevertheless affect people's health, many of them have a legal underpinning and they have remedies in the law."

The program is funded by a two-year grant from the Law Foundation of Ontario.