Medical-Legal Partnerships
Leah Porter and Amara Azubuike Share:
MLPs can fit into existing medical care programs of any size, from large hospitals to remote clinics.
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It is widely accepted in the medical field and elsewhere that social and environmental factors in a person’s life can seriously impact that person’s health and general well-being. These social and physical factors are referred to as “social determinants of health,” and they may cause issues that cannot be prevented with a vaccine or removed by a surgical procedure. Homelessness, food insecurity, poor housing conditions, and domestic violence are all factors that may cause patients to turn and return to urgent care clinics and emergency rooms. Medical care providers are regularly disturbed and frustrated by the issues they have little control over and yet hamper their patients’ ability to get better and remain healthy.