In an effort to reduce the health-harming legal needs of our patients, we have partnered with Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) to offer the Healthy Kids Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) in our Severe Asthma Center. An MLP is a partnership in which medical providers and lawyers work together to identify health-harming legal needs that create hardships for children and families.
Health harming legal needs are conditions negatively impacting health that could potentially be improved with the help of a lawyer, such as having a landlord who fails to properly address housing needs (mold, maintenance, etc.), attending a school that fails to account for a child’s medical needs (prohibited from bringing an inhaler, not excusing medical absences, etc.), or being denied Medicaid coverage or public benefits.
This collaboration presented an ideal launching ground for a pediatric MLP; severe asthma patients tend to have an increased risk of poor environmental conditions and health-harming legal needs and see substantially improved outcomes after legal interventions. Southern Legal Counsel staff are on-site during severe asthma clinic hours, meeting with families, and collaborating with doctors and nurses to deliver holistic care to patients.
For more information, physicians or patients may contact Southern Legal Counsel at (352) 271-8890.