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Partnership News
Friday, May 14, 2010
Whenever I diagnose a person with asthma or allergies, I usually ask a few questions about his or her living environment. Is there shag carpeting in the bedroom? Is the air conditioning filter changed every month? Is there evidence of roaches and other vermin? I ask these questions because mold, dust mites, animal saliva and insect droppings can worsen the symptoms of asthma and other illnesses.
Friday, May 7, 2010
The National Center encourages sites to continue building on the wonderful momentum from Capitol Hill Day by reaching out to leaders in your community. Inviting legislators and staff to your hospital or clinic can be a rewarding experience and a great way to give policymakers the opportunity to get to know your MLP. A site visit can create a lasting impression of the positive impact your work has on the health and well being of individuals and families in your community.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
A new report from the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative at The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services found that up to 85 percent of health center users experience unmet legal needs. The report cites medical-legal partnerships as effective in addressing legal issues while saving dollars, and that MLPs will be increasingly important as health reform unfolds.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
A new 30 minute MLP audio training features physician champions from across the U.S. talking about how MLP positively impacts their patients and clinical practice. It's a great tool for learning more about medical-legal partnership and training faculty, residents and medical students. Use it at a local training, upload it as a podcast, and more!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
New article in Harvard Business Review discusses re-orienting health care priorities and developing new leadership in medicine.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
A new issue brief from the Commonwealth Fund examines the difficulty of obtaining evidence in "evidence-based pediatrics" and describes a new, broader framework for evaluating clinical practice, one that should be of value to both clinicians and policymakers.
Monday, May 3, 2010
In partnership with NCMLP, McDermott Will and Emery is proud to launch a national project to provide pro bono general technical assistance to MLPs across the MLP Network. McDermott will be providing operations-related advice regarding health information privacy, ethics and confidentiality and organizational and other operations-related Issues.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The nation’s legal-education system needs a major overhaul so that students graduating with more than $100,000 in debt can find jobs in a shrinking market and graduate ready to practice. That was the consensus of most of the nearly 100 judges and law-firm partners who converged at a forum this week sponsored by Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Planning on attending the Equal Justice Conference in Phoenix, AZ next month? There will be three MLP sessions and a site visit to the Mountain Park Health Center MLP. Join us!
Friday, April 9, 2010
New article in the ABA Journal spotlights how lawyers can help patients get and stay healthy...
Friday, April 9, 2010
We're back from the MLP Summit where over 300 healthcare providers, lawyers and partners participated in our largest conference yet!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
The National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership (NCMLP) announced its 2010-2011 Medical Advisory Board today. The Board was formed to cultivate richer healthcare involvement in medical-legal partnership (MLP) and support current and future physicians and healthcare leaders in a broad range of clinical settings.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Six new members were sworn-in to the Legal Services Corporation (LSC) Board of Directors on April 7, 2010. Among those sworn-in were Robert Grey, Jr., a former president of the American Bar Association and a partner in the Richmond, VA and Washington offices of Hunton & Williams LLP. Mr. Grey recently spoke at the MLP Summit as part of the Revolutions and Reforms in the Legal Community plenary.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Presentations and handouts from many of the sessions at the 2010 MLP Summit are now online. Click on the link to download resources. Thanks to everyone who helped to make this such an exciting year in MLP!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Today, MLP legal and healthcare providers from 17 states met with more than 70 Congressmen and their staff to educate them about MLP and its positive impact on vulnerable populations across the country. The response was overwhelmingly positive. Members and their staff were eager to support the work of local partnerships and the MLP Network, a testament to the important and valuable services MLPs provide. The American Bar Association also sponsored a briefing, “Medical-Legal Partnerships: Impacting Patients, Transforming Medicine”. We heard from Representative Dan Maffei (NY-5), Wm. T Robinson III (2011-2012 ABA President), Barry Zuckerman (Founding Director, NCMLP), Andrew Wolk (President and CEO, Root Cause) and Ellen Lawton (Executive Director, NCMLP). There was a great turnout that included staff from Congressional offices, the ABA and various government agencies.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
On March 24th, NCMLP presented the 2010 Leadership Award to Representative Christopher S. Murphy (CT-5) and Represenative Henry A. Waxman (CA-30).
Friday, March 12, 2010
A new article in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics explores three main influences related to child’s socioeconomic status that impact long-term health: the material environment, the social environment, and the structural or community environment. These influences illustrate the importance of clinical innovations, health services research, and public policies that address the socioeconomic determinants of these distal health outcomes.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Please join us and your MLP colleagues for a welcome reception on Wednesday, March 24th from 6pm – 7:30pm in the Atrium of the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel. It’s an open house, so please stop by whenever you arrive at the hotel (or on your way back from Capitol Hill Day).
Monday, March 8, 2010
Report focuses on "educationally relevant health disparities" in seven areas -- vision; asthma; teen pregnancy; aggression and violence; physical activity; breakfast; and inattention and hyperactivity -- that disproportionately affect the educational opportunities and outcomes of urban minority youth. Report argues that unless they are addressed in a coordinated fashion at the federal, state and local levels, efforts to close United State's education achievement gap will be compromised.
Friday, February 26, 2010
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is seeking proposals for Public Health Law Research grants. Grants will be awarded in amounts up to $450,000 for studies that build the evidence for and strengthen the use of regulatory, legal and policy solutions to improve public health as well as those focused on identifying and ameliorating laws and legal practices that unintentionally harm health.
Partnership Resources
May 19, 2009 - 12:30pm
ABSTRACT:
In this Article, the authors, two clinical law teachers and a social worker teaching in the clinic, wrestle with some persistent questions that arise in cross professional, interdisciplinary law practice. In the past decade much writing has praised the benefits of interdisciplinary legal practice, but many sympathetic skeptics have worried about the ethical implications of lawyers working with nonlawyers, such as social workers and mental health professionals. Those worries include the difference in advocacy stances between lawyers and other helping professionals, and the mandated reporting requirements that apply to helping professionals but usually not to lawyers. This Article addresses those concerns in a direct way, using social work as an exemplar for many kinds of interdisciplinary practices.
CITATION:
Professional Ethics in Interdisciplinary Collaboratives: Zeal, Paternalism and Mandated Reporting. Clinical Law Review. Spring 2007; 13: 659. Alexis Anderson, Lynn Barenberg, Paul R. Tremblay.
February 18, 2009 - 1:25am
In April 2008, the National Center and MLP | Boston with Cornell University conducted a qualitative study to measure the impact of MLP on patient-families. 72 interviews were conducted with patient-families (36 had access to medical-legal partnership services, 36 did not). The study found that MLP patient-families:
- Were more likely to acknowledge they had a problem when speaking with their doctors
- Were better, more skilled advocates
- Employed more effective strategies to solve legal problems then they would have otherwise
- Felt supported while receiving legal assistance
- Saw improvements in their families' well-being
- Were able to assist other families with the knowledge they gained
Attached is the preliminary report summary.
May 19, 2009 - 11:32am (Updated: May 19, 2009 - 12:18pm)
ABSTRACT:
This article examines the prevalence of asthma among New York City households from 10 racial/ethnic groups, and it explores whether differential exposure to potentially adverse housing and neighborhood conditions helps to mediate observed disparities. After adjusting for household size, Puerto Rican households exhibit the highest levels of asthma, followed by other Hispanic and black households. Mexican, Chinese, and Asian Indian households exhibit the lowest levels of asthma. Results from multilevel logistic regression models indicate that exposure to deteriorated housing conditions and perceptions of low social cohesion in the neighborhood significantly elevate the odds of asthma. Controlling for these conditions along with household characteristics reduces the disproportionately high levels of asthma among Puerto Rican and black households, although they remain significantly higher than the level among white households.
CITATION:
Racial/Ethnic Differences in Asthma Prevalence: The Role of Housing and Neighborhood Environments. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. June 2008; 49: 131-145. Emily Rosenbaum.
April 14, 2010 - 3:20pm
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
May 19, 2009 - 3:23pm (Updated: May 19, 2009 - 3:24pm)
Study concludes children whose families have applied for welfare and children who are uninsured are at high risk medically and may require additional services to improve health outcomes.
CITATION:
Relationships Between Welfare Status, Health Insurance Status, and Health Care Among Children with Asthma. American Journal of Public Health. 2002; 92 (9): 1446-1452. PR Wood, LA Smith, D Romero, P Bradshaw, PH Wise & W Chavkin.
May 19, 2009 - 12:07pm
Article discusses need to include social deteminants in social history screening of pediatric patients.
CITATION:
Revisiting the Social History for Child Health. Pediatrics. September 2007; 120: e734-e738. Chén Kenyon, Megan Sandel, Michael Silverstein, Alefiya Shakir and Barry Zuckerman.
January 28, 2009 - 6:32pm (Updated: March 3, 2009 - 8:14am)
Sample medical-legal partnership grant proposal from the National Center.
January 28, 2009 - 6:46pm
This budget and budget justification are an example for a medical-legal partnership in its first year. All medical-legal partnerships are structured slightly differently, and as such, there is no exact budget.
May 19, 2009 - 11:21am (Updated: August 4, 2010 - 11:48am)
Study examines patients' attitudes toward providers screening for social needs and resident providers’ attitudes and behaviors toward addressing these needs.
CITATION:
Screening for Basic Social Needs at a Medical Home for Low-Income Children. Clinical Pediatrics. January 2009; 48(1): 32-36. Arvin Garg, MD, MPH, et. al.
May 19, 2009 - 11:28am (Updated: May 19, 2009 - 11:29am)
Article examines key tasks and challenges in caring for socially disadvantaged patients and the patient-centered medical home.
CITATION:
So Much To Do, So Little Time: Care for the Socially Disadvantaged and the 15-minute Visit. Archives of Internal Medicine. September 2008; 168(17): 1843-1852. Kevin Piscella, MD, MPH, Ronald Epstein, MD.
May 19, 2009 - 11:11am (Updated: May 19, 2009 - 12:17pm)
ABSTRACT:
Although asthma has emerged as a major contributor to disease and disability among US children, the burden of this disease is unevenly distributed within the population. This article provides a brief overview of social-status variables that predict variations in asthma risks and social exposures, such as stress and violence, that are emerging as important risk factors. The central focus of the article is on the distal social variables that have given rise to unhealthy residential environments in which the risk factors for asthma and other diseases are clustered. Effective initiatives for the prevention and treatment of childhood asthma need to address these nonmedical determinants of the prevalence of asthma.
CITATION:
Social Determinants: Taking the Social Context of Asthma Seriously. Pediatrics. March 2009; 123(3): S174-S184. David R. Williams, et. al.
May 19, 2009 - 12:24pm
Article explores the role that legal advocacy can play in combating asthma rates in low-income communities of color.
CITATION:
The Asthma Crisis in Low-Income Communities of Color: Using the Law as a Tool for Promoting Public Health. New York University Review of Law and Social Change. 2007. Alina Das.
May 19, 2009 - 12:27pm
ABSTRACT:
With significant numbers of North Carolinians going without health care it is easy to pay less attention to reducing the environmental factors that result in poor health outcomes. The place you call home, whether a single room, apartment or owned home is the place where people spend the majority of their time. We have known for years that substandard housing can have a significant negative impact on children yet we have been extremely slow to aggressively fund efforts to remove these health factors from existing housing stock. Over the past few years, several research studies have calculated the economic cost of specific environmental risk factors on children. Cost figures range from $404 million in Montana to $1.87 billion in the State of Washington. Although the preceding studies focused on the impact of environmental risk factors on all children, this particular study focused on the impact of environmental-related risk factors on the health of NC children only living in substandard housing.
CITATION:
The Economic Impact of Substandard Housing Conditions Among North Carolina Children. Chenoweth & Associates, Inc. May 2007. David Chenoweth, PhD.
January 28, 2009 - 6:44pm
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.
May 19, 2009 - 11:46am (Updated: May 19, 2009 - 11:47am)
Article examining the ethical dilemmas facing nurse attorneys.
CITATION:
The Nurse’s Duty to Report Child Abuse Versus the Attorney’s Duty of Confidentiality: The Nurse Attorney’s Dilemma. Journal of Nursing Law, 1(1). 2007. Kathleen M. Kearney, RN, MSN, JD.
May 19, 2009 - 3:18pm
Study found that terminating or reducing welfare benefits by sanctions, or decreasing benefits because of changes in income or expenses, is associated with greater odds that young children will experience food insecurity and hospitalizations.
CITATION:
Welfare Reform and the Health of Young Children. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. July 2002. J Cook, et al.
May 19, 2009 - 3:27pm
Article in the Journal of the American Medical Women's Association:
As clinicians, we have no choice but to respond to the social forces that so profoundly affect the health of the families we serve; we must take advantage of our capacity to make substantial contributions to the health and well-being of our patients.
CITATION:
Welfare, Women, and Families: Implications for Clinicians.
Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. Winter 2002. LA Smith.
May 19, 2009 - 11:18am
Article examines the benefit of and need for clinician leadership in patient care.
Starting from isolated pockets of excellence and innovation, clinical leadership still has a long road to travel. But it is an essential road for both clinicians and their patients. A deep commitment to patient care and to traditional clinical skills will always remain the core of a clinician’s identity. To achieve the best and most sustainable quality of care, however, a commitment to building high-performing organizations must complement these traditional values. All the evidence suggests that patients will see the benefit.
CITATION:
When Clinicians Lead. The McKinsey Quarterly. February 2009. James Mountford and Caroline Webb.
May 19, 2009 - 2:41pm
ABSTRACT:
Pediatricians recognize that social and nonmedical factors influence child health and that there are many government programs and laws designed to provide for children’s basic needs. However, gaps in implementation result in denials of services, leading to preventable poor health outcomes. Physician advocacy in these arenas is often limited by lack of knowledge, experience, and resources to intervene. The incorporation of on-site lawyers into the health care team facilitates the provision of crucial legal services to vulnerable families. Although social workers and case managers play a critical role in assessing family stability and finding appropriate resources for families, lawyers are trained to identify violations of rights and to take the appropriate legal steps to hold agencies, landlords, schools, and others accountable on behalf of families. The incorporation of lawyers in the clinical setting originated at an urban academic medical center and is being replicated at >30 sites across the country. Lawyers can help enhance a culture of advocacy in pediatrics by providing direct legal assistance and case consultation for providers, as well as jointly addressing systemic issues affecting children and families. Until laws to promote health and safety are consistently applied and enforced, pediatricians will need lawyers to effectively care for vulnerable children.
CITATION:
Why Pediatricians Need Lawyers to Keep Children Healthy.
Pediatrics. 2004; 114 (1):224-228. B Zuckerman, M Sandel, L Smith & E Lawton.
