黑料门

Initiative tackles health-harming legal needs of underserved populations

Loyola鈥檚 Maywood Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP), which supports underserved populations, launched on February 1, 2021. Through this interdisciplinary partnership between 黑料门University Chicago School of Law鈥檚 Health Justice Project, 黑料门Medicine, and Stritch School of Medicine, the Maywood MLP serves patients of the 黑料门Center for Health on Roosevelt in Maywood, Illinois, by collaborating with clinic providers and staff to address the health-harming legal needs of vulnerable patients and advocating for policies that combat systemic barriers to health.

鈥淲e are so excited to collaborate with the providers and staff at the Center for Health on Roosevelt to address the legal needs of vulnerable patients,鈥� says Maya K. Watson, acting director of the Maywood MLP. 鈥淚n light of the dismal rise of evictions and unemployment rates and the profound health inequities exacerbated by the pandemic, the Maywood Medical-Legal Partnership is ready to serve the legal needs of the Center鈥檚 most vulnerable patients while advocating for policies toward achieving health equity for all.鈥�

The COVID-19 pandemic鈥檚 disproportionate impact on Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, and other vulnerable populations has exposed structural inequities in the distribution of resources and access to health care in unprecedented ways. In addition to the Maywood MLP work, faculty and students in 黑料门University Chicago School of Law鈥檚 Health Justice Project clinic and in Loyola鈥檚 schools of Public Health, Nursing, and Medicine have responded with outreach and services targeted at communities underrepresented in the allocation of resources yet overrepresented by COVID-19 cases and its financial and health consequences.

For more on Loyola鈥檚 outreach work during the pandemic, see the October 2020 article Loyola鈥檚 Health Justice Project tackles health inequities and COVID-19.