Poverty, Health, and Law: Addressing the social determinants of HIV/AIDS through medical-legal partnership

Ali Brock, MS-II

Project Overview

  Proposal: to co-author a chapter to be published in Poverty, Health, and Law: Reading and Cases for

Medical-Legal Partnership

Team ◦ Deb Weimer, JD - University of MD School of Law ◦ Ann Hilton-Fisher, JD - AIDS Legal Council of Chicago ◦ Jayson Cooley, L2 - Roger Williams School of Law ◦ Dr. Jody Rich, MD, MPH – Warren Alpert Medical School and Miriam Hospital Immunology Center ◦ Editor: Liz Tobin Tyler, JD - Director of Public Service and Community Partnerships at the Roger Williams School of Law

Background and Definitions

  Medical-legal partnership (MLP) ◦ A collaboration that strives to to improve health and wellness of vulnerable populations by integrating legal services into the medical setting Social determinants of health (SDH) ◦ Per the World Health Organization, the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age

Goals

  For the book ◦ Provide relevant case studies and best practices for MLP among vulnerable populations ◦ Facilitate collaborative learning between medical and law students For the chapter ◦ Elucidate relationship between SDH and HIV ◦ Highlight the urgent need for MLP among individuals infected and affected by HIV

Chapter Outline

   ◦ ◦ Medical Sections ◦ Development of the US HIV/AIDS epidemic Clinical course of HIV and antiretroviral drugs ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ Relationship between SDH and HIV among vulnerable populations Legal Sections ◦ Confidentiality and disclosure Employment rights and protections Public Benefits: eligibility and access Considerations for families and children Planning for incapacitation and death Best practices for MLP, discussion questions, and case studies presented throughout

My Role

     Unexpected, challenging, and also perfect Researched and wrote medical sections Created chapter outlines, assigned sections and word counts, established (and re-established!) deadlines Integrated sections, opinions, and revisions from co-authors Liaison between writing team and book editor

Related Activities

    June: attended the 2010 International Network for Justice Health July: together with a colleague, assisted Dr. Rich in editing a special edition of

Substance Abuse

October: developed and presented a lecture on poverty and HIV to Roger Williams law students Ongoing: see patients with Dr. Rich at the Adult Correctional Institute

Thank you

     RI AHEC Dr. Jody Rich Liz Tobin-Tyler Co-authors Jessica Hart, MS-II