Health, Housing, and Justice: Two-Year Implementation Evaluation of a Health System's Multi-State Medical-Legal Partnership to Address Housing Instability

Journal Article
Written By NCMLP

Description

A two-year evaluation of Kaiser Permanente’s multi-state medical-legal partnership sheds light on how healthcare and legal sectors can work together to address housing instability and what it takes to implement these partnerships effectively at scale. The findings, published in Health Services Research, reveal that the MLP expanded access to legal services and delivered services efficiently. Eighty-two percent of legal cases were resolved with fewer than five hours of attorney time.

Implementation success was driven by the inclusion of strong clinical champions, targeted staff training on housing-related legal issues and referral protocols, and existing social needs screening infrastructure. Operational barriers included difficulties with information sharing, acclimating legal teams to complex healthcare systems, and geographic misalignment between Kaiser Permanente and legal aid organizations’ service areas.

 

Read the Article

Link to the Journal
 

Authors

  • Natasha Arora

  • Sarah Terry

  • Holly R. Stevens

  • Vanessa W. Davis

  • Gerson Sorto

  • Bethany Hamilton

  • Marisa Conner

  • Alejandra Cabrera

  • Shane R. Mueller

  • Maria Casoni

  • Hiba Elkhatib

  • Ellen Lawton

  • Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler

 

Acknowledgement

These resources were created as part of the Kaiser Permanente (KP) Medical-Legal Partnership Initiative in partnership with the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership and HealthBegins.

NCMLP

ncmlp@gwu.edu

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