Medical-Legal Partnerships Plus

 

Households with low incomes face high rates of legal needs, with an average of one to three legal needs each year. However, 86% of these legal needs go unmet. Without assistance, legal issues can impact the health outcomes of families with low incomes by limiting access to safe housing, adequate income, dignified employment, access to education, protection from violence, and the ability to immigrate. Research has demonstrated that at least half of people’s health is determined by these social, economic, and environmental factors. Legal interventions and connections to social service resources have the capacity to change and improve these factors.

The Medical-Legal Partnerships Plus (MLP+) program improves individual and family well-being by addressing the social determinants of health through wraparound legal and social services in healthcare settings. MLP+ provides federal funding to long-standing medical-legal partnerships to expand and strengthen the legal capacities of the partnerships by introducing social service navigators, increasing collaboration with other social service organizations, and contributing to knowledge around medical-legal partnership best practices, ultimately serving as crucial links to families as they navigate these systems during emergencies.

What is a medical-legal partnership?

A medical-legal partnership integrates civil legal aid services alongside healthcare services to mitigate complex social conditions that may impact the health outcomes of individuals, families, and communities. For example, a clinic may notice that many of their patients’ asthma is being exacerbated by mold in their homes. The clinic may then decide to partner with a legal aid organization to help families obtain mold remediation from their landlords. Clinicians could screen their asthmatic patients for mold issues and then refer families to the legal aid organization for assistance.

What is the “plus” in Medical-Legal Partnerships Plus?

In addition to providing legal services, the MLP+ grant recipients will strengthen their capacity to provide wraparound social services within the medical-legal partnership context by integrating a social service navigator and building relationships with community-based social service partners. The social services professionals on the patient care team may assist a patient in locating a food pantry, joining a caregiver support group, or submitting a job application.