Massachusetts Personal Injury Library
Medical Law Partnership for Children
The Medical Law Partnership for Children at Boston Medical Center is a kind of legal aid program that helps families in need with both legal and medical assistance. It was originally called the Family Advocacy Program when it began in 1993 with Dr. Barry S. Zuckerman, chief of pediatrics at Boston Medical Center, and a team of medical and legal experts. Just one way this partnership works–although traditionally doctors may write a letter to a landlord asking them to fix housing conditions like lead paint that affect children’s health, those letters are more effective coming from a lawyer.
“Just as the medical profession advocates preventive health care, so too by entering into these partnerships with health care providers, the legal profession can advance a ‘preventive law’ strategy for addressing clients’ social and economic problems and thereby improve clients’ health and well-being, especially those from low-income and other under-served communities,” according to the MLP for Children website. So far, the MLP for Children has helped more than 14,500 families in the US and Canada, and trained over 1,000 people in the holistic nature of this partnership.
Families don’t typically look to the legal profession to help them with health care needs for their children. But with health care professionals having frequent contact and a position of trust with families, they are in a position to identify when a health care issue is connected to a legal problem. The American Bar Association, the American Academy of Pediatricians, and the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians have passed resolutions in support of MLP For Children.
According to the website, in the fall of 2005, MLPC received grants from the W. K. Kellogg and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations to create a national center for medical-legal partnership with the specific focus of providing technical assistance and funding to burgeoning partnership sites while developing and cultivating the Medical-Legal Partnership Network. There are now close to 80 sites across the country — partnerships between front-line health care providers and lawyers seeking to positively impact the lives of vulnerable populations.
The Partnership Funding Program supports the establishment of a sustainable network of medical-legal partnerships focused on promoting the health and well-being of vulnerable populations by ensuring that their basic needs for housing, nutrition, health care, education, and safety and stability are met.
The Medical-Legal Partnership Network offers assistance to states wanting to set up a similar partnership. Their website provides sample start-up documents including grant proposals and memorandum of understandings; standardized needs assessment and advocacy assessment tools; training materials and tools for adaptation in local communities; and best practices in capacity and sustainability, evaluation, systemic advocacy and training and education. MLP for Children will help with matching of potential medical and legal partners and even conducts site visits to support partnership activities.
There is a Medical-Legal Partnership Annual Summit where hundreds of healthcare and legal representatives get together to share stories and get additional training. In addition, MLPC will work with individual sites to develop a National Health Advocacy Network designed to build local, regional and national support for policies related to child health. They have created and implemented a Child Health Impact Assessment designed to help legislators, the public, and the media understand the effect state and local projects and legislation have on the health of vulnerable children, especially where the policy is not obviously related to child health, such as housing subsidies. They also have developed a national clearinghouse for information and studies related to the health problems of poor children.
When selecting a Massachusetts child injury lawyer you’ll want to ask critical questions such as; how long have you been practicing law; do you have experience with child accident cases in Massachusetts; what is the biggest settlement or verdict you have won? For over 30 years Kiley Law Group, located in Boston and Andover, Massachusetts, has fought on behalf of children. Our child injury lawyers take time when speaking with you about your child’s injuries. Mr. Kiley’s firm works with you on a contingency basis, which means there are NO FEES unless our trained personal injury attorneys win your case. Call now for a FREE legal consultation.
