Resources
We publish research, tools, and lessons learned to help healthcare and legal organizations build and operate medical-legal partnerships and to help funders and policymakers advance medical-legal partnership activities. You can search those resources in the library below.
The library also links to journal articles, authored both by National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership staff and MLP practitioners and researchers from the field, that highlight ways medical-legal partnerships have improved patient health and well-being, the healthcare workforce, and healthcare delivery. A list of these articles with summaries are also available on the Peer-Reviewed Research page.
The Opioid Crisis in America & the Role Medical-Legal Partnership Can Play in Recovery
This issue brief examines how legal services delivered alongside medical and behavioral health services can help support successful recovery from substance use disorders. It highlights case studies of individuals in recovery who were aided by medical-legal partnership services, and looks at how existing recovery-based MLP programs in Ohio, Indiana, and Nevada operate. The brief offers a window into how legal services, integrated into existing recovery efforts, can play a role in alleviating the crisis.
Improving the Care of Youth With Type 1 Diabetes With a Novel Medical-Legal Community Intervention: The Diabetes Community Care Ambassador Program
A study of an intervention among youth with type 1 diabetes, which included medical-legal partnership counsel as a key element, found that 30 percent of youth accepted legal counsel. Youth enrolled in the program were found to demonstrate significant improvement in their glycemic control after one year of the intervention, as compared to youth not enrolled in the program.
Health Center-Based Medical-Legal Partnerships: Where They Are, How They Work, and How They Are Funded
Health centers represent the fastest growing sector for medical-legal partnership (MLP) adoption across the health care system; the number of health centers operating MLPs in 2016 represents nearly double the number in 2014. Today, 113 health centers operate MLPs, and 38 additional health centers are planning new MLPs. This issue brief describes how and where these partnerships operate and how state primary care associations are supporting these programs. It also discusses how health-center based MLPs are financed, with a spotlight on four states that integrate financing for legal services in Medicaid payment arrangements.
Medical-Legal Partnerships At Veterans Affairs Medical Centers Improved Housing And Psychosocial Outcomes For Vets
Researchers from Yale School of Medicine and the Department of Veterans Affairs – Connecticut examined the outcomes of veterans who accessed legal services at four medical-legal partnership sites in Connecticut and New York from 2014 to 2016. Researchers observed significant improvements in Veterans’ housing, income, and mental health.
The Roots and Branches of the Medical-Legal Partnership Approach to Health: From Collegiality to Civil Rights to Health Equity
This article traces the roots of the medical-legal partnership (MLP) approach to health as a way of promoting the use of law to remedy societal and institutional pathologies that lead to individual and population illness and to health inequalities.
Interprofessional Medical–Legal Education of Medical Students: Assessing the Benefits for Addressing Social Determinants of Health
In 2011, the authors implemented a four-session didactic interprofessional curriculum on medical–legal practice for third-year medical students at Morehouse School of Medicine. From 2011–2014, medical students participated in pre- and post-intervention surveys designed to determine their awareness of SDOH’s impact on health as well as their attitudes toward screening for SD0H issues and incorporating resources, including a legal resource, to address them. Post-intervention survey results indicated that students self-reported an increased likelihood to screen patients for SDOH issues and an increased likelihood to refer patients to a legal resource.