Medical-Legal Community Partnership: Creating a System of Legal Care to Improve the Health of Los Angeles County’s Low Income Patients

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Los Angeles County’s Medical Legal Community Partnership (MLCP-LA) provides civil legal services to low-income individuals at health clinics and in the community to ensure they have positive health outcomes. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) partnered with legal services organizations to create a system of legal care that addresses social determinants of health such as eviction, healthcare access and employment barriers. These barriers can cause individuals to face homelessness and can lead to worsening of their chronic physical and mental conditions. They also can increase demand on limited safety net programs and lead to more crowded emergency rooms. MLCP-LA serves individuals at seven health clinics as well as across the county’s 4,750 square miles through a web-based portal. The legal teams are integrated into the healthcare delivery system with community health workers, social workers, medical case workers and medical providers. In addition to providing direct legal services, the lawyers expand the capacity of care teams through training. They also work to identify broader systemic problems, all with the aim of helping high-risk individuals. In 2019 alone, the program processed 1,244 referrals and opened 1,409 cases resulting in 1,000 positive patient outcomes.