Using the law and lawyers to address the social and economic determinants of low-income children's health

Medical-legal partnerships between lawyers and health care providers are increasing in number and kind throughout the country. As a public health initiative, they can address the socio-economic barriers to optimum health faced by low-income patients, including children, HIV/AIDS patients, cancer patients, and others. This presentation will give an overview of these partnerships nationally and discuss one successful partnership in Atlanta, Georgia, called the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), which consists of two children's hospitals, a law school, and a legal aid society. HeLP lawyers work with health care providers to provide comprehensive services, often intervening to address underlying social, environmental, or economic conditions that harm low-income children's health, such as: (1) poor housing conditions, which can exacerbate a child's chronic illness like asthma; (2) domestic violence, which can affect a parent's ability to provide appropriate care; (3) failure to protect the legal rights of a developmentally disabled child, which can lead to her inability to get remedial special education, and (4) loss of a parent's income or even a job, which can result because of repeated absences from work to attend to a sick child, possibly leading to housing eviction. With two years of data collected, HeLP demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaboration can help break a poverty-related cycle of health problems and hospitalizations. In addition to direct legal services, HeLP provides a model interdisciplinary educational program to train future legal and health professionals to address the socio-economic needs and legal rights of children and families, especially those from poor and under-served communities.