Our Impact - MLPB

Busting Silos and Improving Health

People live in law and policy contexts.

So human-centered care must account for the law and policy dimensions of health, wellbeing, and dignity. In partnership with stakeholders across fields and disciplines, we are building the evidence base for legal partnering as a prevention tool.

Changing the Conversation: Legal Partnering as Prevention

Legal Problem-Solving and Flourishing: A Handbook for Perinatal and Early Childhood System-Builders

Over the course of 18 months, a diverse group of 46 local and national stakeholders participated in a Learning Community process sponsored by The JPB Foundation. This handbook includes new tools for interested communities to use when planning and piloting legal problem-solving strategies as an element of care.

Legal Information And Rights Education As An Element of Care: A Promising Health Justice Strategy (2021)

Health Affairs blog describing how cutting-edge communities of care are embracing collective responsibility by systematically incorporating legal information and rights education into social care planning and delivery.

Social Care Matters: Do Teams Have What They Need to Succeed? (2021)

Rhode Island Medical Journal commentary spotlighting legal partnering as a prevention tool within community health workforce was a collaborative effort with our partners at Care Transformation Collaborative – Rhode Island.

Partnering with Families Experiencing Housing Instability: Considerations for Interdisciplinary Teams Based in Massachusetts and Beyond (2020)

This report on a 2019 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation Special Initiative convened by MLPB spotlights key housing problem-solving strategies available to interdisciplinary teams serving families.

Legal Education and Problem-Solving in Action

COVID-19 & Access to Housing

After MLPB advocated for one family’s safe housing during the pandemic, families across the Commonwealth benefited.

Reasonable Accommodations & CORI Mitigations

By assisting one woman experiencing homelessness, care team members learned CORI mitigation strategies for future patients.

Immigration Status

A mother of young children encountered immigration status challenges. With support from an interdisciplinary team, she was sworn in as a U.S. citizen!

Education & Transportation

Concerns about equitable access to schooling surfaced during a primary care visit, demonstrating the importance of a person-centered approach to care.

Utilities

A patient’s broken furnace necessitated quick-thinking in advocacy, and provided an opportunity for a care team to learn advanced problem-solving strategies.

“I want to let you know how impressed I have been with your responses to our team’s inquiries. Your responses have been compassionate, clear, detailed, and informative. They also have been so accessible for our [staff] to understand and use to coach their [clients about] legal matters they are facing or anxious about. This [capacity-building] reduces stress and builds competency for both [families] and our staff. And I believe that it will have impact on outcomes for our families.”
– Program Coordinator