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National Survey of Legal Clinics Housed by the Department of Veterans Affairs to Inform Partnerships with Health and Community Services

Timko, Christine
Taylor, Emmeline
Nash, Amia
Blonigen, Daniel
Smelson, David
Tsai, Jack
Finlay, Andrea K
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UMass Chan Affiliations
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Journal Article
Publication Date
2020-08-01
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Abstract

Legal clinics housed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) help veterans eliminate service access barriers. In this survey of 95 VA-housed legal clinics (70% of clinics), clients' legal problems were mainly estate planning, family, obtaining VA benefits, and housing (14-17% of clients). Most clinics rarely interacted with VA health care providers, did not have access to clients' VA health care records, and did not track clients' VA health care access (58-81% of clinics); 32% did not have dedicated and adequate space. Most clinic staff members were unpaid. Survey findings-that most VA-housed legal clinics do not interact with VA health care or directly address clients' mental health and substance use needs, and lack funds to serve fully all veterans seeking services-suggest that VA and community agencies should enact policies that expand and fund veterans' legal services and health system interactions to address health inequities and improve health outcomes.

Source

Timko C, Taylor E, Nash A, Blonigen D, Smelson D, Tsai J, Finlay AK. National Survey of Legal Clinics Housed by the Department of Veterans Affairs to Inform Partnerships with Health and Community Services. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2020;31(3):1440-1456. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2020.0104. PMID: 33416704; PMCID: PMC8215811.

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DOI
10.1353/hpu.2020.0104
PubMed ID
33416704
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