Novel perinatal medical-legal partnership development and pilot implementation to address health-harming legal needs

Abstract

Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) are evidence-based, interdisciplinary collaborations between health systems and legal service organizations designed to address health-harming legal needs among low-income patients and their families. MLPs provide civil legal services and advocacy around health-harming needs, such as substandard housing, food insecurity, benefit denials, education and employment barriers, legal status, custody, and child support. Widely implemented in pediatric health settings, research supports MLPs ability to positively impact the health trajectories of children and their families. This manuscript describes our health system's innovative development and pilot implementation of the first MLP in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). We share our MLP integration strategies, scope of practice, screening processes, workflow, and challenges. We conclude with anticipated areas of growth and future direction for this program, which we believe will address health-harming legal needs for our patients in their earliest weeks of life.

Fig. 1. I-HELP.

The I-HELP acronym chart created by the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership describes the categories in which MLPs can support families and how legal services can impact social determinants of health. Figured used with permission from the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership.

Fig. 2. NICU patient and family support survey.

The social determinants of health screening tool that is provided to all families admitted to the Doernbecher Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to screen for potential health-harming legal needs.