TY - JOUR
T1 - Medical-legal partnerships at veterans affairs medical centers improved housing and psychosocial outcomes for vets
AU - Tsai, Jack
AU - Middleton, Margaret
AU - Villegas, Jennifer
AU - Johnson, Cindy
AU - Retkin, Randye
AU - Seidman, Alison
AU - Sherman, Scott
AU - Rosenheck, Robert A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Project HOPE- The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
PY - 2017/12/1
Y1 - 2017/12/1
N2 - Medical-legal partnerships-collaborations between legal professionals and health care providers that help patients address civil legal problems that can affect health and well-being-have been implemented at several Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers to serve homeless and low-income veterans with mental illness. We describe the outcomes of veterans who accessed legal services at four partnership sites in Connecticut and New York in the period 2014-16. The partnerships served 950 veterans, who collectively had 1,384 legal issues; on average, the issues took 5.4 hours' worth of legal services to resolve. The most common problems were related to VA benefits, housing, family issues, and consumer issues. Among a subsample of 148 veterans who were followed for one year, we observed significant improvements in housing, income, and mental health. Veterans who received more partnership services showed greater improvements in housing and mental health than those who received fewer services, and those who achieved their predefined legal goals showed greater improvements in housing status and community integration than those who did not. Medical-legal partnerships represent an opportunity to expand cross-sector, community-based partnerships in the VA health care system to address social determinants of mental health.
AB - Medical-legal partnerships-collaborations between legal professionals and health care providers that help patients address civil legal problems that can affect health and well-being-have been implemented at several Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers to serve homeless and low-income veterans with mental illness. We describe the outcomes of veterans who accessed legal services at four partnership sites in Connecticut and New York in the period 2014-16. The partnerships served 950 veterans, who collectively had 1,384 legal issues; on average, the issues took 5.4 hours' worth of legal services to resolve. The most common problems were related to VA benefits, housing, family issues, and consumer issues. Among a subsample of 148 veterans who were followed for one year, we observed significant improvements in housing, income, and mental health. Veterans who received more partnership services showed greater improvements in housing and mental health than those who received fewer services, and those who achieved their predefined legal goals showed greater improvements in housing status and community integration than those who did not. Medical-legal partnerships represent an opportunity to expand cross-sector, community-based partnerships in the VA health care system to address social determinants of mental health.
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U2 - 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0759
DO - 10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0759
M3 - Article
C2 - 29200329
AN - SCOPUS:85046785006
SN - 0278-2715
VL - 36
SP - 2195
EP - 2203
JO - Health Affairs
JF - Health Affairs
IS - 12
ER -