| | Medical Legal Partnership News
December 2019 | | | | New and Noteworthy
Jay Sicklick, Esq, MLP Director This edition looks at our recent efforts to change the landscape of pediatric advocacy: direct advocacy to challenge a non-compliant landlord by changing New Haven's policy governing lead exposure; a critical reminder that every child should have heat and utilities during the winter; meet our newest MLP team member; and spend A Day in the Life” of an MLP attorney. Our medical-legal team continues to transform the way the state’s most vulnerable children are viewed in the clinical setting. Presenting at National Conferences: Our MLP led two panels at the National Medical Legal Partnership Conference in National Harbor Maryland this past September. Our teams presented Moving Upstream: Case Studies on Partnering for Legislative Change, and CBAs of the ABCs: Clinical Collaboration, Basic Training, and Advocacy Around Education. You can download the presentation materials at the Conference website and view some photos from our panels on the Center’s Facebook page. What’s next? We are actively working with a large coalition to reintroduce legislation to expand state Medicaid insurance for undocumented children and youth under 19. We are looking at enacting further lead protections statewide (article below); actively seeking to protect young children from scalding burns by regulating maximum water temperature in rental units where young children live; and planning for our 2020 statewide MLP conference on April 2 at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. If you have questions, would like to get involved with these efforts, or would like to contribute information to our next newsletter, please email jsicklick@cca-ct.org. | | | | Doctors Changing the Landscape for Lead Exposure
Marjorie Rosenthal, MD, Acting MLP Medical Director Doctors are trained to talk to patients and families in exam rooms. We teach medical students to sit down, make good eye contact, ask open-ended questions and listen intently. We are generally not trained to speak to lawyers in a courtroom or testify in front of city council. Yet, in order to help our patients, we are sometimes called to speak to these different audiences. Testifying was a new set of skills. Read Marjorie’s full account of successful testimony to change municipal regulations on lead exposure here. For additional information, please see articles from WNPR and the New Haven Independent. | | | | A Day in the Life of a CCA MLP Attorney: Yale Daily News “It’s Monday morning, and the pediatric primary care center at Yale New Haven Hospital buzzes with activity. A mother and a nurse kneel on either side of a squirming toddler, trying to keep the child still long enough to take a height measurement. One doctor rushes through the hallways, searching for an Arabic interpreter; another stops to chat with a social worker.” Thus begins an October 25, 2019 feature from the Yale Daily News. The Center for Children’s Advocacy Medical-Legal Partnership Project expanded to Yale-New Haven Hospital in 2013. Since that time, CCA attorney Alice Rosenthal has advocated for more than 2000 children and families with health harming legal needs. Thanks to the generous support of Yale-New Haven Health and Wiggin & Dana, the Center's MLP continues to be a vibrant thread throughout the Yale New Haven hospital system. | | Lights and Heat in the Winter – A Legal Requirement November 1 marked the start of the legal moratorium from termination of lights or gas/electric heat for many low-income Connecticut residents. Families can protect their homes from utility termination by contacting their utility company directly and asking to be “coded” for “Winter” or “Hardship” protection. Once the utility company verifies income (usually through the local community action agency), gas and electric service is guaranteed from November 1 though May 1. This protection applies even if service has already been terminated and even if there is an unpaid balance. Protection is not dependent on medical condition, and it is not necessary for the health care provider to be involved in accessing protection. MLP attorney Bonnie Roswig has been involved in raising the issues affecting health care providers and patients before the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority. An ongoing issue is the “Medical Protection Form” which many providers find confusing. More information on utility protection may be found here. If you have questions about this issue or suggestions for modifying the providers' form, please contact CCA attorney Bonnie Roswig. | | | | Save the Date - Annual Statewide MLP Conference
April 2, 2020, 9:00 am - 2:00 pm Invitation is extended to all Connecticut Medical-Legal Partnerships, and to hospitals, health centers and legal organizations interested in developing a Medical-Legal Partnership.
Register Here
Center for Children’s Advocacy and the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center’s Medical-Legal Partnership announce the third annual MLP Conference on Thursday, April 2, 2020 at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. If you have questions or would like more information about the conference, please email qpatton@cca-ct.org. | | | | Quiana Patton – New Paralegal with the Center's MLP Quiana Patton is the newest member of our Medical-Legal Partnership. Quiana brings paralegal skills and professional experience in the mental health field. She graduated from Albertus Magnus College with a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice; and is dedicated to the health and well-being of all children but has a special interest in assisting individuals of lower socioeconomic status and kids with disabilities. | | | | | | | | Center for Children's Advocacy
65 Elizabeth Street, Hartford, CT 06105
211 State Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604
CCA MLP at Connecticut Children's Medical Center
CCA MLP at Yale New Haven Hospital
cca-ct.org/mlpp | | | | | | | |
