Healthcare providers and legal advocates address families’ unmet civil legal needs as follows:
- Referring families directly from the clinics to Legal Aid for advice and advocacy
- Catalyzing system-level change through joint advocacy
- Educating healthcare professionals about the social determinants of health and legal remedies available to help patients and families
- Sharing management, data, and stories that advance the partnership
Child HeLP helps ensure that children and families reach their full potential by addressing risks including poor housing conditions and evictions, delays and denials of public benefits, and special education needs.
Accomplishments
Each year, Child HeLP achieves hundreds of positive outcomes for families including:
- Improving housing conditions and preventing homelessness
- Securing education services to resolve school problems
- Obtaining medical insurance coverage for children
- Securing or increasing income to meet basic needs
- Resolving legal problems interfering with employment of parents
- Resolving other legal problems detrimental to health and well-being
- Providing advice or information about legal rights
Since 2008, Child HeLP has helped more than
19,000 children in referred households and recovered over
$1.3 million in back and adjusted future public benefits for families.
Research
The Child HeLP team is leading the way in demonstrating the value and evidence-based impact of medical-legal partnerships through research:
Training Video Curriculum
Child HeLP developed an innovative social history video curriculum to teach providers how to screen for social and legal issues affecting their low-income patients and families.
Sign in to MedEdPORTAL to view Video Curriculum on Screening for the Social Determinants of Health.