Our organization targets areas of high poverty, endemic health disparities, and few extant resources, and builds a place for help. We provide basic medical services (pediatrics/internal medicine) and basic legal counsel in combined “medico-legal” clinics. Our experience has proven that poverty regularly manifests in comorbid and interrelated legal and medical issues. We give help on both fronts wi
thout regard to the consumer’s ability to pay. Consider the case of a young boy suffering from respiratory distress, who, despite his doctors' best efforts, continued to present at his county hospital ER: As the boy's medical team searched for answers to his ever-worsening condition, they learned that the landlord for the family's tenement had refused to put the home's heating system in working order. The resulting wet, winter conditions exacerbated the boy's pulmonary inflammation, making it impossible for him to fully heal. A Place for Help's legal staff was able to intervene on behalf of the boy and remind the landlord that he risked substantial civil liability if he did not follow the law and fix the furnace. This simple legal intervention brought into sharp focus the benefits, both medically for the young boy and legally/financially for the landlord, of simply turning on the heat. As a result, the boy slowly made a full recovery and the landlord avoided a considerable damages award. Often, a dedicated, knowledgeable friend is all that a patient/client needs to overcome a given challenge. A Place for Help staff members are humbled by the opportunity to be that friend.
