By: Lori T. Williams, Esq., Oakland/Wayne County Legal News Examiner for Examiner.com
Since August of 2009, William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, MI has assisted 83 patients with both medical care and legal aid, through its partnership with the Legal Aid and Defender Association (LAD). Karen Glorio Luther, Senior Corporate Counsel for Beaumont, states that, “the cases have involved assisting families with obtaining income support (SSI) and (SSD); resolving insurance issues; handling foreclosures on behalf of the homeowners or landlord tenant matters for tenants; obtaining educational assistance for children; handling child support, domestic violence, and other family law matters; resolving consumer issues; and helping families obtain public benefits.” The medical-legal partnership, created in August of 2009, is modeled after a National Medical Legal Partnership through Boston Medical Center, designed to help vulnerable individuals and families meet their basic needs. This could include food, housing, heat in the winter, or helping an asthmatic patient breathe better by removing mold from their home.
(Photo by John Meiu) Dr. Mary Smyth (left) is a pediatrician at Beaumont Children's Hospital and physician champion for the new Legal Aid for Children program. With her are (from second left to right) Karen Luther, senior corporate counsel in Beaumont Hospitals' Legal Affairs Department; Dr. Jeffrey Maisels, physician-in-chief of Beaumont Children's Hospital; and Michele Hall-Edwards, deputy chief counsel of Legal Aid and Defender Association's Civil Law Group.
While the Beaumont and Legal Aid partnership initially targeted pediatric patients, it quickly spread to their families as well. The goal became to address the whole patient and their family’s needs, both legally and medically. Currently the partnership is helping pediatric patients, as well as OB/Gyn patients and families. “We hope to expand the program to include seniors in the near future, as they are another vulnerable population”, says Luther. A referral to LAD typically comes from the physicians, nurses, and social workers treating patients at Beaumont, who have been trained to spot legal issues associated with the medical injuries or symptoms.
“The most common requests for legal help these days, through the medical legal partnership, includes obtaining public benefits and helping the families through the foreclosure process", says Michele Hall-Edwards, the Deputy Chief Counsel of the Civil Law Group at LAD. Hall-Edwards enjoys "being able to assist physicians and patients by removing legal obstacles that interfere with the ability to stabilize the health of children," and describes this benefit as the most rewarding part of her work. She hopes to identify additional funding which will make it possible to assist many more children and their families in the future. For more information about the medical legal partnership, click here, or visit the LAD website.
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