Eskenazi Health has provided high-quality, cost-effective, patient-centered health care to Central Indiana residents for more than 160 years, and unbeknownst to many, we utilize attorneys in assisting patients with a variety of their needs.
For the past 14 years, Eskenazi Health’s Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) has enhanced health outcomes by helping patients manage civil legal issues that affect their health. Eskenazi Health MLP partners include Indiana Legal Services, Faegre Drinker, the Joseph Maley Foundation along with new partner, Taft Stettinius & Hollister.
When Eskenazi Health patients are in need of legal assistance, clinical staff can refer them directly to legal services. Similar to other members of the health care team, our attorneys are available to consult with clinical and non-clinical staff about system and policy barriers to care. A number of these partnerships go further, leveraging their considerable knowledge and expertise to advance local and state policies that lead to safer and healthier environments.
Unlike many similar programs around the United States, the Eskenazi Health MLP partnership has no socioeconomic requirement for service and is funded internally. MLPs provide pro bono legal services to patients based on referrals from the program coordinator, who is also a lawyer.
A person’s health is determined by a whole lot more than just high-quality health care services and personal behavior; it’s shaped by environment — where someone lives, works, plays, and learns, and here’s an example of how the Eskenazi Health MLP program works: A child with chronic asthma may come in for treatment, only to return to an environment filled with conditions that make his or her asthma worse. Thanks to Eskenazi Health’s MLP, the child’s physician may call upon an attorney to intervene with the landlord and get the substandard conditions upgraded, which in turn, leads to improvement in the child’s health.
Eskenazi Health’s MLP also offers assistance with housing, consumer rights, immigration, family and stability, government benefits, education law, decision making, gender marker changes/name changes and expungement (setting aside a criminal conviction). MLP assistance is also provided in the following area:
• Advanced care and end-of-life planning services for patients in Eskenazi Health Oncology and preparation of advanced planning documents at an annual wills clinic held each summer for all Eskenazi Health patients.
• Legal guidance related to domestic and sexual assault concerns for patients seen in the Eskenazi Center of Hope (supported by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute STOP program).
• Guardianship of incapacitated adults seen at the Center for Youth & Adults with Conditions of Childhood (CYACC) when a family member or friend is available to become the guardian.
According to the National Center for Medical Legal Partnerships, last year, MLPs helped more than 75,000 patients resolve legal issues that were impeding good health, trained more than 11,000 health care providers to better understand and screen patients for health-related social needs, and engaged in clinic- and policy-level projects designed to improve health and health equity for entire communities.
Patients interested in MLP services may speak with their nurse, provider or social worker at an Eskenazi Health Center or Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center location.
For more information on the Eskenazi Health MLP program, visit: https://www.eskenazihealth.edu/programs/medical-legal-partnership
Nydia Nunez-Estrada, M.D.
Family Medicine Specialist at Eskenazi Health Center North Arlington