A new fact sheet from the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership outlines how health centers can use needs assessments to understand and meet their patients’ health-harming civil legal needs.
To receive health center funding, health centers must conduct a needs assessment to describe the need for and shortage of health services, and to identify opportunities to meet their patients’ needs. Since civil legal aid is now considered an enabling health service, assessing and addressing patients’ civil legal needs can be part of a broader strategy to depict and meet the health needs of health center patients.