Medical-Legal Partnerships Serving Veterans: History, Growth & Progress

Report / Fact Sheet
Written By NCMLP

Description

Medical-legal partnerships are an important part of the VA’s strategy to enable Veterans to achieve health and well-being. The last decade has seen steady growth of Veteran-specific MLPs across the country, from only one in 2009 to thirty-one as of January 2019, no doubt because of the VA’s 2011 Directive that encouraged VA Medical Centers to provide space for legal services to meet Veterans where they are. This issue brief provides a look at the state of the VA MLP field – why and how legal services have grown in VA Medical Centers, where VA MLPs are operating today, and considerations for the future.

For a step-by-step guide to starting and strengthening a medical-legal partnership in a Veterans healthcare setting, please download our June 2019 toolkit, VA Medical-Legal Partnership Readiness Guide.

 

Download the Resource

Download the Issue Brief (PDF)
 

Authors

  • Joanna Theiss, JD, LLM, Research Associate, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

  • Jennifer Trott, MPH, Senior Research Scientist, Health Policy & Management, The George Washington University

  • Alanna Peterson, Senior Research Assistant, Health Policy & Management, The George Washington University

This issue brief was published by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.

 

Acknowledgement

This issue brief is possible thanks to generous support from the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

NCMLP

ncmlp@gwu.edu

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Sample MLP Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) From a Los Angeles VA Medical Center
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Financing Medical-Legal Partnerships: View from the Field