Medical-Legal Partnerships: a promising approach for addressing health-harming legal needs among people with HIV

• DOI: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1422783
• Publication Date: 2024-07-09T13:09:47Z
• Authors: Julia Jaén; Anne Frankel; Ashley French; Robin Davison; Miguel Munoz-Laboy; Omar Martinez
• Keywords: Staffing; Stigma

Introduction People with HIV (PWH), particularly those at the intersection of sexual and gender identities, face enduring obstacles to accessing care, including structural stigma, racism discrimination, housing instability, limited access health insurance. To address these challenges, Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) in care offer an innovative approach that integrates medical legal services. By targeting health-harming needs (HHLN), MLPs aim enhance continuum outcomes for PWH. Methods This study examines benefits challenges within organizations serving PWH through social-ecological model. MLP providers ( n =111) identified organizational-level such as funding limitations, resource integration issues, staffing constraints. Results demonstrated numerous benefits, patient impact comprehensive service provision, enhanced staff support capacity, potential policy influence. Discussion These results underscore feasibility while offering valuable insights into their efficacy guiding implementation needs, thereby improving outcomes.