Medical-legal partnership program secures funding for next two years of service for moms in recovery

NHLA staff attorney Jonathan Teller-Elsberg, right, works weekly on-site at Moms in Recovery, in Lebanon

A Dartmouth Health and NH Legal Assistance medical-legal partnership program has been awarded another two years of funding. Following a successful first two years of the program, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and the Couch Family Foundation have committed again to joining with Dartmouth Health in financially sustaining this important program.

Launched in 2021, families eligible for this program must be pregnant or have at least one child under the age of five. A medical-legal partnership focuses on identifying health disparities in communities and addressing individuals’ unmet legal needs related to social conditions, the physical environment or inadequate knowledge of or access to available public benefits. This program help address complex health and social needs, like ensuring emergency access to insurance benefits, preventing employment and education discrimination, and securing housing and preventing unwarranted and illegal evictions. Many people cannot afford legal help to address these complex problems.

“Families are faced with many hardships, impacting their health,” said Holly A. Gaspar, manager of Dartmouth Health’s department of Population Health and medical-legal partnership program manager. “Being able to support one of those barriers, the need for legal intervention, can truly making a lasting impact on their health and the overall health of their family that would otherwise go unmet. Legal services can be expensive, therefore unattainable for many. Rather than fear of the legal system, patients receiving this service feel supported, listened to, and successful at navigating the next steps.”

This effort is a partnership between Dartmouth Health and New Hampshire Legal Assistance (NHLA), bringing collocated civil legal services to several locations.

“Medical-legal partnership is a win-win,” said Sarah Mattson Dustin, executive director of NHLA. “Our healthcare and community partners receive the benefit of dedicated, on-site legal services for the families they are serving, and the innovative model brings NHLA even closer to our clients and communities.”

For more information on the medical-legal partnership program, contact Gaspar at holly.a.gaspar@hitchcock.org.