Can we talk? Yes, if it’s about people’s legal rights, risks, and remedies.
March 2021
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Check out our new Blog post
on MLPB’s telementoring partnership with CTC-RI’s Community Health Teams!
Telehealth is here to stay, and if we can accelerate and assure Digital Equity, it may be a powerful tool for individual, family, and population health. But extending telehealth to meet people’s social, economic, and environmental needs is a new frontier — so supports and guardrails for the community health workforce are critical. MLPB is honored to deploy this capacity-building strategy with a number of communities of care — including the Care Transformation Collaborative / PCMH Kids – Rhode Island.
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Making sense of paid leave rights for caregivers is hard —
is there a overview?
Yes! Check out this new article, State Paid Family and Medical Leave Laws: Growth and Gaps in Coverage, co-authored by MLPB’s Samantha Morton with valued colleagues from the Brown Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Center for WorkLife Law.
- This new publication is currently only accessible with a journal subscription; another helpful resource can be found here.
- Want more information about family and medical leave options? Check out the Employment section of MLPB’s Digital Digest here (for federal law), here (for Massachusetts) and here (for Rhode Island).
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Thank you, Start Early, for welcoming us at the 2021 National Home Visiting Summit last week!
MLPB team member Kate Gannon joined valued colleagues from The Children’s Trust in presenting on A Legal Partnering Roadmap from Evaluation of Need to Successful Intervention. We look forward to continuing this conversation with early childhood innovators who want to explore the power of Legal Partnering for Child and Family Health!
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In the Spotlight: Preventing Utility Shut-Offs for Seriously Ill People
Last week, our colleagues at the National Consumer Law Center released a comprehensive report on state-based laws that protect individuals and families from utility service shut-off when a household member is seriously ill. The upshot? Many of these state-based protections are:
- unnecessarily narrow;
- under-communicated to people and communities;
- difficult for eligible households to navigate and secure; and
- too short-term given the nature of serious and chronic illness.
If we care about energy security as a structural driver of health, there is a lot of policy work to be done across the country. Are you part of a community of care that is:
- Prioritizing screening for utility needs, perhaps among other for health-related social needs (HRSN)?
- Tracking the many barriers to continuous, stable gas, electricity and water that people served by your community of care face?
If you want to move from people-to-policy in your state:
1. Check out NCLC’s specific policy recommendations at pp. 19-20
2. Orient your org’s/system’s Government Relations team; and
3. Get in touch with MLPB’s Legal Director Jeannine Casselman to learn about potential synergies with NCLC, the national DULCE Learning Network, and more!
Questions about (1) law and policy changes impact the people you serve, and (2) role-aligned problem-solving strategies you can offer? Visit MLPB’s Digital Digest for curated information on evolving resources, benefits, and legal protections — currently covering key federal law as well as state laws in MA and RI.
Care Delivery & Financing Transformation
- How Are Payment Reforms Addressing Social Determinants of Health? Policy Implications and Next Steps (The Milbank Quarterly, Feb. 4, 2021)
Caregiver Protections
- Family Caregiver Priorities and Recommendations: Results from a Request for Information (National Academy for State Health Policy, Feb. 16, 2021)
- The Role of Paid Leave During COVID-19: What Has been the Impact and How Do We Move Forward (The Milbank Quarterly, Feb. 12, 2021)
Early Childhood
- Our Children Are In Trouble if We Don’t Pass Biden’s Child Allowance (The Hill, Feb. 23, 2021)
- ‘There’s No Natural Dignity in Work: . . . A generous child allowance might [be the answer] ‘ (The New York Times, Feb. 18, 2021)
- The Radically Simple New Approach to Helping Families: Send Parents Money (The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2021)
Employment, Food & Income
- Podcast: What a $15 Minimum Wage Could Mean for Population Health (Health Affairs This Week Podcast, Feb. 19, 2021)
- Expanded COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Support Physical and Mental Health (Health Affairs Blog, Feb. 18, 2021)
- Unmet Social Needs and Worse Mental Health After Expiration of COVID-19 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (Health Affairs, Feb. 18, 2021) (subscription required)
- Going to Bed Hungry (The Washington Post, Jan. 27, 2021)
Housing & Health
- As Evictions Loom, One City Shows how to Save Homes and Families (Boston Globe, Feb. 20, 2021)
- Pandemic’s Toll on Housing: Falling Behind, Doubling Up (The New York Times, Feb. 6, 2021)
- Low-Income Older Adults Face Unaffordable Rents, Driving Housing Instability and Homelessness (Justice in Aging, February 2021)
- The Black Hole at the Heart of the Eviction Crisis (The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2021)
- Tiered Supports Offer Landlords a Cost-Effective Way to Help Vulnerable Tenants during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Housing Matters, Jan. 27, 2021)
- Biden Calls on HUD to Address Racial Equity (Housing Wire, Jan. 26, 2021)
- Preventing Eviction for New Yorkers Amid COVID-19 (Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., 2021)
LGBTQ+ Rights & Health
- LGBTQ People Now Protected Under the Fair Housing Act (Marketplace, Feb. 15, 2021)
- Lawmakers in 14 States have Proposed Anti-LGBTQ Bills, Many of Which Target Trans Youth (CNN, Jan. 27, 2021)
- Beyond Bostock: The Future of LGBTQ Civil Rights (Center for American Progress, Aug. 26, 2020)
Transportation & Equity
- How Transit-Oriented Development Can Promote Equitable, Healthy Communities (Housing Matters, Feb. 24, 2021)