Formative Evaluation of a Medical-Legal Partnership on the Westside of Chicago, Illinois, 2016-2021 (ICPSR 38258)
In February 2016, Under the Rainbow (UTR), a pediatric trauma-based therapy program within Sinai Chicago's Behavioral Health department, joined with the Legal Council for Health Justice (LC), the scope of which includes assistance in accessing public benefits and special education, to form a medical-legal partnership (MLP). Integrating legal services with health care, the partnership allows patients seeking services at UTR to receive referrals for legal services through LC. The partnership is built on access to judicial and legal services as a social determinant of health that can lead to improved health outcomes, and thus the goal is to provide training and support to providers on legal and social barriers to health and provide free legal assistance to patients.
In this study, the research team conducted a formative evaluation of the existing MLP between the two organizations (located in Chicago, Illinois, United States). The specific aims of this evaluation were to:
- Determine how a medical-legal partnership (MLP) can improve knowledge and understanding of domestic and community violence
- Understand how the MLP can serve different populations by looking at program process and implementation in-depth
- Prepare the MLP for impact evaluation to determine how the MLP can fill gaps in victimization research and legal intervention programs
Existing data from patient health risk assessments collected by UTR and legal services data collected by LC were obtained and analyzed. Clients had been served by UTR and referred to LC between July 2016 and May 2021. Interviews with staff at both organizations were conducted in 2019 and 2020. The research team also completed documentation review and created other artifacts (e.g. protocols, implementation guides, process maps) as a result of the evaluation.