Lawton Ellen, Tyler Elizabeth Tobin
Lead Research Scientist & Co-Principal Investigator, National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership, Department of Health Policy, The George Washington University.
R I Med J (2013). 2013 Jul 1;96(7):23-6.
Research documents the significance of the social determinants of health - the social and environmental conditions in which people live, work and play. A critical foundation of these social and environmental conditions are laws and regulations, which construct the environments in which individuals and populations live, influencing how and when people face disease. Increasingly, healthcare providers, public health professionals and lawyers concerned with social determinants are joining forces to form Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) which offer a preventive approach to address the complex social, legal and systemic problems that affect the health of vulnerable populations. Now in more than 500 health and legal institutions across the country, including Rhode Island, MLP is a healthcare delivery model that integrates legal assistance as a vital component of healthcare. This article explores the many benefits of the MLP model for improving patient health, transforming medical and legal practice and institutions and generating policy changes that specifically address health disparities and social determinants.
研究记录了健康的社会决定因素的重要性——即人们生活、工作和娱乐的社会及环境条件。这些社会和环境条件的一个关键基础是法律法规，它们构建了个人和人群生活的环境，影响着人们面临疾病的方式和时间。越来越多关注社会决定因素的医疗服务提供者、公共卫生专业人员和律师正在联合起来，形成医疗-法律伙伴关系（MLP），这是一种预防性方法，用于解决影响弱势群体健康的复杂社会、法律和系统性问题。如今，在包括罗德岛在内的全国500多家健康和法律机构中，MLP是一种将法律援助作为医疗保健重要组成部分的医疗服务提供模式。本文探讨了MLP模式在改善患者健康、转变医疗和法律实践及机构，以及促成专门解决健康差距和社会决定因素的政策变革方面的诸多益处。
