Planning

A diagram of medical organizations.

Article describes medical-legal partnership model in which advocacy resources are sited in the clinical setting to improve the health of low-income families and children. The MLP approach is designed especially to change the culture and improve the quality of care in
pediatric settings across the country in order to prevent health and developmental problems in children. By encouraging pediatricians to look beyond the medical needs of their patients, and incorporate “legal treatment” for problems associated with unmet basic needs that impact child health, MLP seeks nothing less than to change the practice of pediatrics.

CITATION:
The Family Advocacy Program: A Medical-Legal Collaborative to Promote Child Health and Development.  Management Information Exchange Journal.  Summer 2003.  E Lawton.

In the effort to create effective policies and programs to address social disparities in health, allies outside the health sector are crucial.  Letter to the editor highlights the inclusion of attorneys as part of the public health team.

CITATION:
It Takes Lawyers to Deliver Health Care.  American Journal of Public Health.  2005; 95: 245 - 249.  ME Northridge.

ABSTRACT:

As oncology care is evermore provided in an ambulatory setting, oncology treatment teams are forced to confront family and financial issues that may expedite or impede patient treatment. An on-site, specialized attorney can intervene to address these issues before a crisis develops that interferes with cancer treatment.

ABSTRACT:

This medical–legal model is taking hold in resource-poor settings or resource-poor countries, including support from a new initiative through the Soros-funded Open Society Institute. Its benefits should have ripple effects well beyond the health and well-being of individual families and children. Firstly, collaboration among lawyers and healthcare providers constituency for related efforts ranging from human rights campaigns to legislative advocacy. Secondly, identifying and dealing with violations of laws that emanate from a human rights framework will add teeth to those laws and that framework. This in turn will ultimately promote a wider embracing of the rule of law as a universal standard.

Article offers overview and innovations of the medical-legal partnership model.

CITATION:
Medical-Legal Partnerships: From Surgery to Prevention?  Management Information Exchange Journal.  Spring 2007; 1-7.  Ellen Lawton.

ABSTRACT:

Doctors and lawyers are learning to put aside their preconceived notions of each other’s profession and work together for the mutual benefit of their patients/clients. In the last five years, medical-legal partnerships in hospitals and health facilities have grown significantly throughout the country. These collaborations have proven effective in combating selective socio-economic impediments to health, relieving the anxiety that often accompanies a chronic health condition, and improving quality of life for vulnerable adults and children. This new partnership benefits patients, hospitals and both of these professions.

In October 2005, the New England Regional Medical-Legal Partnership Network authored a series of white papers on the medical-legal partnership model. Here are excerpts from the paper which provides best practices and strategies for building external support for the MLP model and strengthening ties with internal MLP constituencies.