Systemic Advocacy

The Cleveland Community Advocacy Program worked with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the Dept. of Education's Office of Civil Rights to improve language access for parents with limited English Proficiency. A resolution was signed in Sept. 2011.

Dr. Peter Shin, lead author of a recent Geiger Gibson/ RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative report, and Ellen Lawton, Esq., Executive Director of the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership and leader in the MLP field, will examine the role of medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) as catalysts for improving the overall health of low-income and vulnerable patients by addressing their legal needs. Joining them will be Dr. Marsha Griffin, Co-Founder of Community for Children and a pediatrician at the Brownsville Community Health Center, a multi-site migrant and community health center in Brownsville, Texas. Community health centers' comprehensive approach to health care and high proportion of low-income patients make them  an excellent entry point for access to essential legal services, and health center MLPs can also benefit the viability of the centers.

In July 2010, the Medical-Legal Partnership for Health Act was introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.  Two identical bills were introduced calling for a federal demonstration project for MLP.

In this webinar, Ellen Lawton, NCMLP's Executive Director, and Kevin Kappel, Manager of Government Strategies for ML Strategies, share next steps for the bill and MLP Network outreach.

Boston Medical Center (BMC) health care providers and MLP | Boston’s legal team took a three-prong appoach to address the problem of utility access for low-income patients at BMC. They began by training front-line healthcare staff and providing direct legal assistance to low-income families, and then created institutional solutions that led to systemic impact across the state.

This report highlights the impact medical-legal partnership can have on systems change and underscores the need for active medical-legal partnerships to expand upon their dynamic service delivery model for a broader impact on policy.

CITATION:
Utility Access and Health: A Medical-Legal Partnership Patients-to-Policy Case Study. National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership and Medical-Legal Partnership | Boston. Boston: June 2010.

The MLP team at the Cleveland Community Advocacy Program in Cleveland, OH worked with the Cleveland City Council to pass a resolution in support of U Visas on March 22, 2010.

The MLPs in northern California organized a regional MLP policy initiative to investigate the housing code inspection practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. Medical students researched the link between inadequate housing and poor health and medical partners documented the health connection. A policy brief was written and disseminated in September 2009 with policy recommendations to improve access to healthy housing.

The report takes a close look at code enforcement policies and practices for dealing with moisture intrusion, ventilation, pest control and other housing issues that are particularly relevant to people with asthma.

The report was put together by the Medical-Legal Bay Area Regional Coalition.

On March 24, 2010, MLP Teams from eighteen states met with over seventy members of Congress and their staffs to talk about the positive impact medical-legal partnerships have on vulnerable individuals and families.

This webinar provides participants with tips for preparing client stories, answers questions about LSC sites’ participation in meetings on the Hill, and offers talking points and strategies for meetings.
Presenters:
Nicole Young, Principal, Podesta Group
Julie Strandlie, Legislative Counsel, American Bar Association
Ellen Lawton, Executive Director, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

There is currently strong language in the House healthcare reform bill for an MLP federal demonstration project. During this webinar, Ellen Lawton, executive director of the National Center and partners from the Podesta Group, provide an update on the status of the bill and outline strategies for Congressional outreach.

A second webinar will be offered specifically for MLP Capitol Hill Day participants.

Please note that there was a ten-minute audio glitch during this webinar that has been edited out. The attached PDF slides have the information that was skipped.

This webinar examines the language currently in the House healthcare reform bill for a medical-legal partnership federal demonstration project. It is specifically designed for Ohio partnerships.
Presenter: Ellen Lawton, Esq., Executive Director, National Center for MLP