A new article in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved discusses a 36-month study of the effectiveness of MLP. The study suggests that adding an attorney to the medical team increases awareness of and access to social and legal services.

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Peninsula FAP Recognized by NICHQ as Innovative Prevention Program Improving Health

Friday, June 12, 2009

Peninsula Family Advocacy Program, Palo Alto, CA

The Peninsula Family Advocacy Program (FAP) provides on-site legal services to support low-income families and pregnant women in addressing unmet legal needs that often present barriers to their children’s health outcomes. Pediatricians at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital (LPCH) and Ravenswood Family Health Center (Ravenswood), an East Palo Alto community health center, and healthcare providers at San Mateo Medial Center (SMMC) and its prenatal clinics are provided background understanding of legal issues affecting patients, taught how to screen for family legal needs, and then refer them to the FAP.

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Pediatrician Promotes Sports, Justice for All Peninsula Kids

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Peninsula Family Advocacy Program, Palo Alto, CA

Dana Weintraub, M.D., is a clinical assistant professor in general pediatrics at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, staff pediatrician at Ravenswood Family Health Center and a lecturer on medical legal issues in children’s health at Stanford Law School...Weintraub is also co-founder and medical director of the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program, a collaborative effort with the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County to address causes of poor health in low-income children and provide free legal services to low-income families served by Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and the Ravenswood Family Health Center....

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Medicine and Law Partner for Patients

Monday, February 2, 2009

Peninsula Family Advocacy Program, Palo Alto, CA

Dana Weintraub, MD, fellow ’04, saw that many low-income children need not just health care but also legal remedies, inspiring her to become a national advocate for a medical-legal model of patient care. She realized that parents frequently confide to pediatricians details about their children’s home and school lives, putting the physician in a unique position to spot legal problems in areas such as substandard housing and educational inequities...

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Partnership Resources

Advocacy Code Card -- Peninsula FAP

February 26, 2009 - 11:16am

Advocacy Code Card developed by the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program as a resource for medical providers.

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Code Enforcement and Healthy Homes: An Analysis of Practices in Four Bay Area Counties

April 15, 2010 - 9:48am (Updated: April 15, 2010 - 9:50am)

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.

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HOUSING -- Housing Rights Training -- Peninsula FAP

February 26, 2009 - 11:24am (Updated: February 26, 2009 - 2:42pm)

Healthy Housing: Tenants’ Housing Rights

A presentation developed by the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program to train medical providers.

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HOUSING -- Sample Landlord Letter

February 26, 2009 - 11:29am (Updated: February 26, 2009 - 2:42pm)

Sample letter from a medical provider to a landlord requesting repairs to a patient's housing. Developed by the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program as an accompanying tool to their Healthy Housing training.

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HOUSING -- Tip Sheet for Tenants

February 26, 2009 - 11:26am (Updated: February 26, 2009 - 2:42pm)

A tip sheet for patient-clients about their tenant rights developed by the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program.

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IMMIGRATION -- Public Charge: Immigrants and Public Benefits Training

February 26, 2009 - 11:33am (Updated: May 19, 2009 - 2:30pm)

Public Charge: Immigrants and Public Benefits

A presentation developed by the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program to train healthcare providers about immigrant eligibility for public benefits.

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Medical-Legal Partnership Overview Training -- Peninsula FAP

February 26, 2009 - 11:31am

A medical-legal partnership overview training developed by the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program.

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Provider Identification of Socio-Economic and Environmental Barriers to Child Health

February 17, 2009 - 10:16pm

Dana Weintraub, MD, Medical Director of the Peninsula Family Advocacy Program in San Mateo, CA developed this tip sheet for medical providers with example questions to help elicit barriers to child’s health while taking a patient’s social history.

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Stanford Medical-Legal Course Syllabus

February 18, 2009 - 12:44am

Dana Weintraub, MD, and Melissa Rodgers, Esq., co-teach a joint medical-legal partnership course, “Medical-Legal Issues in Children’s Health”, for medical and law students at Stanford University.

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MLP Network

The genius in the program is the bringing together of the lawyer into the medical clinic where these problems surface, which enables the doctor to include the legal remedy as part of the medical treatment. No longer is the doctor limited by the scope of his practice, and the lawyer is introduced to the problem in its most apparent manifestation.

David W. Hilgers, Chair of ABA’s Health Law Section

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