A Planning, Implementation, and Practice Guide for Building and Sustaining a Health Center-Based MLP
This toolkit provides the health center community with information and resources to start, strengthen, and sustain a medical-legal partnership (MLP). The toolkit can be used by health centers new to MLP who want help with the initial planning process. It can also be used by health centers that already provide legal services to patients but want help facilitating continuous quality improvement conversations to address issues like low/high referral volumes or funding instability. While this toolkit is written specifically for the health center community, much of the guidance and resources will be applicable to teams in other healthcare settings.
The toolkit has four sections:
Part I outlines nine conversations that a health center team should have with its legal partners to plan for an MLP’s long-term success and to integrate it into the health center’s operations. These conversations cover everything from staffing to funding to information sharing. Each conversation includes questions for your team, decisions you will need to make, advantages and challenges to different approaches, and links to case studies and more information.
Part II is a deep dive into the specifics of how to develop screening, referral, and service delivery workflows.
Part III looks at how integrating legal services can support health center workforce development, with a particular focus on training.
Part IV illustrates the types of projects MLPs can engage in to help your health center move upstream to address social determinants of health and health equity at a policy level.
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Authors
Kate Marple, MSc, Director of Communications & Senior Research Scientist, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
Mallory Curran, JD, Principal, Mallory Curran Consulting, and Senior Advisor, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
Ellen Lawton, JD, Director, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
Danielle Rahajason, Project Lead, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
This toolkit was published by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.
Acknowledgement
This publication is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $449,748 with 0 percent financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by HRSA, HHS, or the U.S. Government. For more information, please visit HRSA.gov.