Health Law Partnership
Children’s Healthcare at Scottish Rite
975 Johnson Ferry Rd., Suite 360
Atlanta, GA 30342
Telephone: (404) 705-0000
Website: https://healthlawpartnership.org/about-us/locations/
100% children’s law
Does use volunteer attorneys
The Georgia State University College of Law, together with partners Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, created the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) in 2004 to improve the health and social well-being of low-income children and their families in Georgia. One of HeLP’s underlying premises is that by combining the health care expertise of hospital professionals with the legal expertise of attorneys, HeLP can provide a more holistic set of services to address the multiple determinants of children’s health.
Help provides on-site legal services through three offices located at hospitals operated by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. The Help Legal Services Clinic is a live-client clinic located at Georgia State University’s College of Law. Law and health care graduate students participate in the clinic for course credit, and work under close attorney supervision. The clinic explores federal and state laws and policies that can affect children's health and well-being, such as public benefits, income support, health insurance, family law, employment, housing, and education.
In addition to direct legal services, HeLP works to strengthen the long-term effectiveness of the legal services component by training law and health care professionals to understand and address the social needs and legal rights of low-income children and their families. HeLP provides an interdisciplinary in-service educational program about the legal, ethical, and policy issues that affect children’s health and well-being. This program includes in-service training and education for health care professionals at Children’s, Children’s social work staff, volunteer attorneys who work with HeLP, and medical residents and students in training at Children’s. These presentations cover topics such as family law, housing law, public benefits, and special education. In addition to providing representation to children, volunteer attorneys provide research on substantive legal issues and prepare and present education seminars for health providers on matters of law affecting health and well-being of children.
HeLP advocacy efforts focus on work at the legislative, policy-making, and government agency levels on issues such as Medicaid, Georgia’s S-Chip Program (Peachcare For Kids), health insurance coverage issues, and other changes in law and regulations designed to improve the overall health and well-being of children.