9th Annual Conference

Underserved patients often have significant social needs that may be a barrier to optimizing health. These are typically caused by policies that lead to inequities and health disparities -- the so-called social and structural determinants of health. Expanding how we view our integrative health care team can have tremendous implications in addressing these needs.

This presentation will discuss how a Federally Qualified Health Center has transformed its clinical practice to address its patients' needs -- whether that is food insecurity, transportation, housing, or more -- by creating and implementing a Social Determinants of Health Questionnaire. It will then highlight one particular intervention, the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP), and will show how having a lawyer on staff can assist patients with a number of different matters that impact their overall health, including school/employer discrimination, problems with landlords, denied disability claims, or criminal justice system involvement. We will show how we have incorporated our MLP into an Integrative Pain Management Program that has been developed for our patients with chronic pain. A lawyer is part of the team which meets weekly, and also includes primary care providers, behavioral health specialists, nutrition, acupuncture, yoga therapists, and substance abuse counselors. Additionally, we will demonstrate how collecting the right information and having the right staff can be leveraged into advocacy and policy changes that can benefit our patients and communities.

We are all accomplished presenters, and our group includes a lawyer and two clinicians, so we have diverse perspectives on how to best impact health. We have many years' experience working directly with underserved communities, and have the added advantage of having worked on an administrative level. We also all understand the importance of advocacy and policy change in improving health.

Social Determinants of Health, Medical-Legal Partnership, Integrative Pain Management Program, Policy/Advocacy

Panel discussions: assemble a group of 3-6 people with varying perspectives to discuss a topic as an interdisciplinary team

This session is appropriate for all audiences and skill levels