Brief: Leveraging legal services on the Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (H-PACT)

Monday, April 13, 2020

By Jennifer Trott & Kimberly Lattimore National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership

The Homeless Patient Aligned Care Team (H-PACT) is a medical home treatment model being implemented at over 50 VA medical centers (VAMCs) nationwide. The goal of the H-PACT model is to provide the collaborative care necessary to tackle the physical, mental, and social determinants of health which can lead to homelessness. Currently, one-quarter (25.9 percent) of VA health care systems that have an H-PACT, also have an on-site VA medical-legal partnership. This brief highlights the potential for partnership between the legal community and H-PACTs at VAMCs, and profiles MLPs that are successfully tackling the unmet legal needs of Veterans experiencing and at-risk of homelessness through this approach. This brief is possible with support from the Bob Woodruff Foundation.