Increasing Nutritional Supports for Newborns: A Patients-to-Policy Story
Description
When Javana Bradford took her one-month old daughter, Augyst, for a checkup at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, pediatrician Melissa Klein asked if she and her daughter were getting enough to eat. Ms. Bradford said she was having trouble adding Augyst to her Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, commonly known as food stamps. Dr. Klein referred her to Deanna White, a paralegal at the hospital’s medical-legal partnership (MLP) with the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati. That referral led to policy changes that helped hundreds of families.
The fourth story in our patients-to-policy story series follows the Cincinnati Children’s medical-legal partnership team as they worked with the agency that administers food benefits in the county to eliminate administrative barriers to women enrolling newborns in benefits. New procedures allow hospital case managers to send birth records directly to the agency, and help families enroll newborns months earlier than before, which translates to real money for child nutrition.
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Authors
Kate Marple, Director of Communications & Senior Research Scientist, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
Erin Dexter, Communications & Events Associate, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership
This case study was published by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.
Acknowledgment
This case study is possible thanks to generous support from The Kresge Foundation.