If you don’t think you can help with a problem, you won’t ask about it. Having a lawyer on the team has given health care providers confidence that if they ask about social factors, there is help, and that intractable problems have solutions.
Dr. Malika Fair says medical-legal partnership puts the humanity back in medicine, and if experienced during residency, it changes the way doctors practice medicine for the rest of their lives.
Dr. Jennifer Newberry, social worker Shannon Jordan, and nurse practitioner Sarah Rabin-Lobron agree that having a resource to address legal needs sparks different kinds of conversations with patients.
Dr. Kerry Rodabaugh shares how working on a team with lawyers and other community partners has shaped her as a physician and has helped her teach residents.