DNA-People’s Legal Services and North Country HealthCare have combined forces to operate Flagstaff’s first Medical Legal Partnership. The Medical Legal Partnership provides an important resource for medical providers and gives lawyers a chance to expand the ways in which they are serving the people.
Legal issues can make a person sick or hurt their chances of recovery. What factors can contribute to illness? Take, for example, being homeless in Flagstaff during the winter. A better question is what can a lawyer do to solve this problem? Perhaps an issue with the housing authority has landed this person on the streets, and a lawyer can help them appeal the housing authority’s decision or file a new application. Perhaps debts are gnawing at the income a family would otherwise use to cover rent, and an attorney can advise that family on bankruptcy and other options. What if a car that a son uses to drive his aging parents to medical appointments is being repossessed? A lawyer can examine whether the repossession is lawful and whether the son may have any way to save his car. The most difficult cases are those in which a patient’s health is directly endangered by another family member. In these all-too-frequent situations, doctors can sew stitches, preserve evidence, provide therapy and cure infections, while lawyers can help patients obtain orders of protection, divorces, and help remove children from abusive or neglectful homes.
The lawyers at DNA-People’s Legal Services have been dealing with these kinds of cases for years. By having an office inside of a medical center, these services are now closer and more easily accessible to patients. For patients who lack reliable transportation, this can be essential. In addition, the medical staff are often in a position to see or hear about legal problems: a Social Security Disability Insurance application that has been denied or a boyfriend who is abusive. These are all things that may be brought up over the course of an examination with a trusted medical professional.
Dr. Shipra Bansal has made several referrals to the North Country Medical Legal Partnership. “I am very excited to have the MLP come to North Country,” she said. “My patients’ social circumstances are a significant obstacle to them achieving good health. So, to have an additional resource for my patients improves outcomes in a very real way. How can I expect a patient to take their meds or make life changes if her spouse is beating her? Or, how can I expect my patient’s chronic respiratory illnesses to improve if his landlord will not clean up the mold or put in adequate heating in the winter? Even though the law is clear in these instances, my patients often do not have the resources to obtain help themselves. I’m glad we are making this very important connection between legal rights and health.”
The medical legal partnership uses each profession’s tools to serve the patient/the client – both terms different ways of expressing the reason we do our work: the people. FBN
Bethany Palmer is with the DNA People’s Legal Services/North Country HealthCare Medical Legal Partnership