By: Marsha Regenstein, Jennifer Trott, and Alanna Williamson. Published by: National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership. Published on September 5, 2017.
The survey found that MLPs improve wellbeing and patient care and bring financial benefit to patients and healthcare organizations.
Highlights include:
- Improved access to housing and utilities needs (noted by 82 percent of respondents); reduced stress (79 percent); improved access to income and insurance needs (79 percent); improved access to personal and family stability needs (73 percent); and improved access to education and employment needs (53 percent) (p. 26)
- Anecdotally by clinicians, 66 percent reported improved health outcomes, 39 percent reported improved patient compliance with medical treatment, and 23 percent reported the ability to perform at “top of license.” (p. 26).
- “In terms of investment and staff engagement in MLP, legal organizations appear to be more active than health care organizations. Legal organizations are more likely to commit greater amounts of FTE and larger budgets to MLP activities. Legal organizations also often partner with multiple health care organizations to form several MLPs. They invest in training health care staff about the concept of MLP and how to identify health-harming civil legal needs. They handle a significant number of referrals each year and provide services including brief advice and counseling, consultations with health care providers, limited representation, and formal representation.” (p. 29)
- NCMLP recommends: 1) Establishing standard practice guidelines for identifying where and when legal assistance is required; 2) Capturing the impact of MLP services; and 3) Growing and sustaining MLPs (p. 30-31)
Categories: Delivery systems (e.g., MLPs), Health, Health, Legal Aid Practitioners, Medical-Legal Partnerships, National
Legal Aid Research 
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