Article: The roots and branches of the medical-legal partnership approach to health
Friday, December 1, 2017
This article traces the roots of the medical-legal partnership (MLP) approach to health as a way of promoting the use of law to remedy societal and institutional pathologies that lead to individual and population illness and to health inequalities. Given current forces at work – the medical care and public health systems’ focus on social determinants of health, the increased use of value-based medical care payment reforms, and the emerging movement to train the next generation of health care and public health professionals in structural competency – the time is ripe to spread the view that law is an important lens through which we should view health promotion, disease prevention, and overall well-being.
This article is part of an all medical-legal partnership issue of the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics (Volume 17, Issue 2) that followed up on the Yale-hosted MLP symposium. Other articles include:
- Introduction to the Medical-Legal Partnership Symposium Issue (Susanna D. Evarts and Nathan Guevremont)
- A Mental Health Checkup for Children at the Doctor’s Office: Lessons from the Medical-Legal Partnership Movement to Fulfill Medicaid’s Promise (Yael Cannon)
- Medical-Legal Partnerships with Communities: Legal Empowerment to Transform Care (Tamar Ezer)
- Ethics of Evidence: Health Care Professionals in Public Benefits and Immigration Proceedings (Jesselyn Friley)