The new clinic will provide assistance when health-harming legal issues intertwine with patient care in partnership with Hartford Hospital.
A view of the Thomas J. Meskill Law Library at the University of Connecticut School of Law in Hartford on Sept. 25, 2012. (Photo credit: UConn archives)
The University of Connecticut School of Law and Hartford HealthCare are partnering to create a Health Equity Clinic. The new clinic, which will open in January 2025, will confront health inequities and outcome disparities through joint medical-legal advocacy and interdisciplinary interventions.
The Health Equity Clinic will operate as a partnership with Hartford Hospital, Hartford HealthCare's flagship acute-care hospital. Law students will learn about the complex intersection of poverty, health and law; the concept of health equity and its impact on health outcomes; how the law may be used to improve health; and how health care providers and lawyers can work together to create innovative and measurable interventions and remedies for patients and clients. Law students will work with medical staff in the hospital's primary care clinics to see patients and conduct intakes and interviews.
"We're thrilled to join with Hartford HealthCare in this groundbreaking initiative," UConn Law Dean Eboni S. Nelson said. "The Health Equity Clinic will advance and expand our commitment to community service, providing invaluable legal services to an underserved population. It will offer our students a unique opportunity to engage in meaningful, hands-on work while gaining experience in a vitally important field of law. We are extremely grateful for the support of Hartford HealthCare and the tireless efforts of our faculty, staff and students to bring this vision to life."
The clinic will provide on-site and remote consultations to Hartford Hospital's clinical staff when health-harming legal issues intertwine with patient care. The focus will be on Hartford Hospital's adult patients who present with a history of substandard outcomes, focusing on legal issues that impact outcomes, such as access to health care, food and income security, disability discrimination, and program eligibility.
"As a physician who works in our community health clinics, I am thrilled to see the launch of the Health Equity Clinic in partnership with the University of Connecticut School of Law and Hartford HealthCare," said Dr. Suparna Dutta, Chair of the Department of Medicine at Hartford Hospital. "This initiative embraces our wholehearted commitment to providing access to care, while placing a strong emphasis on the social determinants of health. It will allow us to be laser focused on the legal challenges individuals face who struggle with poverty and other systemic barriers to optimizing health. This partnership is truly an innovative approach to provide high quality, holistic care for our patients and ensure access for all."
Law students enrolled in the Health Equity Clinic will receive extensive training in the social determinants of health and will interact with patients in clinical settings by working with Hartford Hospital's medical providers to identify and address the legal barriers that directly impact clinical care. The students will interact with patients and clinical staff and provide consultation services that are designed to enhance the holistic services offered by the clinical team. In addition, law students will collaborate with clinical experts in identifying and addressing systemic policy issues that can be addressed through this unique interdisciplinary clinic.
"The opening of the Health Equity Clinic marks a transformative step in addressing the intricate relationship between social causes of health disparities and law," said David Mack, EVP and Chief Legal Officer at Hartford HealthCare. "Through this unique partnership with University of Connecticut School of Law and Hartford HealthCare, law students will gain invaluable insights into health equity; undoubtedly having a profound impact on patient outcomes. By collaborating with medical professionals, they will not only learn how to use the law to improve overall health but will help bridge-the-gap between challenging legal and healthcare needs."
The Health Equity Clinic will be the only adult-based medical-legal partnership in central Connecticut, and it will join a select group of academic, law school-based medical-legal partnerships around the country that combine the academic expertise of law school faculty with clinical experience and medical providers who regularly work with patient populations at risk.
The clinic's director will be Jay Sicklick, a visiting assistant clinical professor of law at UConn Law. Sicklick, formerly the deputy director of the Center for Children's Advocacy, spent 24 years as the founder and director of a pediatric-based medical-legal partnership in Hartford and New Haven. He is also a consultant at the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.
"I'm grateful for the tremendous opportunity embraced by both UConn and Hartford HealthCare," Sicklick said. "This partnership will enhance the unique interdisciplinary approach to not only address legal barriers to health equity, but also to create a hands-on system that melds clinical expertise with intensive advocacy training and practice."
The Health Equity Clinic builds upon UConn Law's commitment to experiential education and community service. It will be one of seven in-house clinics and seven partnership clinics at UConn Law that offer legal services to the community while providing law students with hands-on training in the practice of law.
