News

Many medical authors and organizations have called for physician advocacy as a core component of medical professionalism. Despite widespread acceptance of advocacy as a professional obligation, the concept remains problematic within the profession of medicine because it remains undefined in concept, scope, and practice. This article proposes a definition and, using the biographies of actual physician advocates, describe the spectrum of physician advocacy.

Article in Journal of Palliative Medicine outlines how MLPs can address unmet social and material needs for patients when incorporated as part of a comprehensive palliative care model. Study reviews the experience of one MLP and quantifies the benefits of the program for both patients and the host health care institution.

HARTFORD — State lawmakers are discussing a measure that would bar utility companies from shutting off electricity or gas to households with children under 2 years old. Those who voiced their support Tuesday for the bill before the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee said infants and babies don’t have the ability to regulate their bodies’ temperatures as well as older children and adults do, making them particularly vulnerable to heat shutoffs...

The Center for Children's Advocacy's Medical-Legal Partnership Project (MLPP) in Connecticut has appointed Sarah Schlegel, M.D. as the project's Medical Director. The MLPP, a medical-legal collaborative that improves the health and welfare of low-income children and their families, provides legal assistance on site at hospitals and medical clinics serving greater Hartford's poorest neighborhoods.

To help low-income West Virginians overcome barriers to good health, Legal Aid of West Virginia and FamilyCare Health Centers, a federally qualified health center, have partnered to form West Virginia's first medical-legal partnership.

Two professions that have in the past worked separately to help Jacksonville’s low-income community have now joined forces in the Northeast Florida Legal Medical Partnership (NFMLP) to provide integrated medical-legal services to our area’s low-income and vulnerable populations. The law firm of Holland and Knight, representatives from medical associations, hospitals, law firms, and bar associations met Feb. 2 for a kick-off meeting of the newly formed Steering Committee of the NFMLP.

Office Hours available! NCMLP staff and MLP Network members are available for 30 min. consultations on topics including basic MLP strategies, research and evaluation, and confidentiality and ethics. To book an appointment, please contact Leanne.Ta@bmc.org.

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) today opened a special legal clinic at Kings County Hospital Center run by LegalHealth, a division of the New York Legal Assistance Group, to offer free legal assistance to Haitian patients and families seeking Temporary Protected Status (TPS). “For patients from Haiti who are already facing medical and mental health needs, the added stress of their uncertain immigration status can be overwhelming,” said HHC President Alan D. Aviles. “Our collaboration with LegalHealth enables us to treat both medical and non-medical ailments – the whole patient.” LegalHealth has partnered with HHC

The American Bar Association highlighted its support for MLP in the Healthcare Reform bill in a recent letter to Congressional leadership detailing ABA priorities in health care reform. Thanks to our partners at the ABA!

Article in the Journal of Graduate Medical Education describes innovative, residency based medical-legal partnership educational experiences in pediatrics, internal medicine, and family medicine at three different sites. It addresses how these programs have been designed to meet the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s 6 competencies, along with suggested methods for evaluating the effectiveness of these programs.

The Parker Family Health Center in Red Bank, New Jersey, and Ocean-Monmouth Legal Services, Inc. have launched a new program to provide legal services to those who seek medical care at the Center. This medical-legal partnership, named in honor of a former New Jersey State Supreme Court Justice and Red Bank Mayor, is called the Daniel J. O’Hern Legal Assistance and Medical Partnership (LAMP) program. The Parker recently received a grant from Merck Pharmaceuticals to support this much needed program.

Attention LSC-funded legal aid partners! We are committed to facilitating your participation in Capitol Hill Day in conformance with all LSC regulations. Our Hill Day partners, including the Podesta Group and McDermott Will & Emery, will work with individual sites to coordinate strategies to ensure appropriate participation. We strongly encourage our LSC-funded partners to register now, and stay tuned for resources and guidance. In the meantime, click here to see the Center for Law and Social Policy’s (CLASP) excellent analysis of LSC policy advocacy restrictions.

Article highlights need for comprehensive care that addresses social stressors and highlights the Erie Family Health Center (home of the new Chicago Medical-Legal Partnership for Seniors).

Defined by a history of both achievement and controversy, Medicaid has once again become central to the U.S. health policy debate, this time figuring as a key to national health care reform.

New report from Children’s Health Watch and Medical-Legal Partnership Boston finds that subsidized housing plays a significant role in protecting young children from food insecurity and the health risks of being seriously underweight.

A fundraising effort to support legal services for Arkansans who cannot afford them got a boost this week when the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Wal-Mart Legal Department announced a $100,000 grant. Through the grant, Legal Aid of Arkansas will create a medical-legal partnership to provide clients access to legal services on-site in clinical health care settings...

On November 17th, Ellen Lawton participated in Root Cause’s Public Innovator’s forum on Capitol Hill to discuss medical-legal partnership in the context of social innovation and government investment.

Dr. Alsan Bellard, Medical Director of Children’s Health Centers of Southeast DC, and Judith Sandalow, Executive Director of Children’s Law Center, testified before the DC Council Committee on Housing and Workforce Development in support of the Tenant Access to Justice Reform Act.

The National Center is delighted to welcome Leanne Ta, Program Assistant to our team! Leanne will be working closely with the MLP Network, Working Groups and Medical Advisory Board.

Last year Dawn Haut, M.D., added a new—and unconventional—member to the health care team at the Pecar Health Center in Indianapolis: an attorney. Through a medical-legal partnership, the lawyer now helps Haut manage important health concerns of her patients. "MLPs are collaborations between health care providers and lawyers designed to address and mitigate social determinants of health and illness," says Chad Priest, R.N., treasurer of the Indiana Health Advocacy Council and an attorney at Baker and Daniels in Indianapolis.