Brief: MLPs addressing the unmet legal needs of health center patients
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Download the brief "Medical-legal partnerships: Addressing the needs of health center patients"
An estimated 50-85 percent of health center users, or between 10-17 million people each year, experience unmet legal needs. In a medical-legal partnership, health care staff are trained to screen for health-related legal issues and refer the patient to an affiliate legal service team to work together to resolve the issues. Given community health centers’ approach to comprehensive care and high proportion of low-income patients, this research brief from the Geiger/Gibson RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative finds that they would serve as an excellent entry point for low-income populations to legal services.