The KIDS LEGAL Medical Partnership (KLMP) is a medical-legal
collaboration between KIDS LEGAL and the Barbara Bush Children's
Hospital (BBCH) at Maine Medical Center. The KLMP began in 2004
with a two-year grant from the
Maine Health Access Foundation.
Based upon its success, the KMLP continues today.
Because environmental and social stressors can have a negative
impact on a child's health, the KLMP recognizes KIDS LEGAL advocates
as subspecialists who are an integral part of the child's treatment
team. The focus of legal advocacy is to ensure that childrens'
basic needs are being met. These needs include safe and stable housing,
family stability, income maintenance, access to needed medical services
and health insurance, and appropriate educational programming.
Working collaboratively, lawyers at KIDS LEGAL provide trainings,
consultations and resource tools to medical providers at BBCH
in order to assist them in identifying social and environmental
issues that are negatively impacting a child's health. One such
resource tool is the Resource Code Card,
which was originally developed under the KLMP as a screening
tool for medical providers to use when treating patients. When
a medical provider identifies an issue, a referral is then made
to KIDS LEGAL. KIDS LEGAL staff then completes its own interview
and assessment to determine if a legal issue exists, and if so,
what level of assistance will be provided to the patient and
patient's family. Past cases have included addressing: unsafe
housing related to insect infestations and/or lack of heat,
inappropriate special education programming, unaccompanied minors
requiring a legal guardian, family law matters, denial of
MaineCare, employment rights regarding the Family Medical Leave
Act, SSI benefits for disabled children, and welfare sanctions.
KIDS LEGAL staff hold regular hours at the Pediatric Clinic two
days a week. Being on-site allows KIDS LEGAL advocates to provide
immediate consultations to medical providers as well as meet with
patients needing legal advice and/or assistance immediately.
Referrals can be made by any medical provider affiliated with
BBCH and/or Maine Medical Center who work with children by calling
KIDS LEGAL at 774-8246. Although housed in Portland, Maine, the KLMP
services the five-county catchment area for BBCH: Cumberland,
York, Sagadahoc, Oxford and Androscoggin counties.
The First KLMP Case Helps Baby get Father,
Benefits and Health Insurance
Unsure of what to do to help their patient, a young single mom
and her newborn baby, doctors called a KIDS LEGAL attorney for
a consultation. The baby was born with some physical
malformations and kidney problems, requiring extensive surgeries.
He's a beautiful and happy baby despite his needs. Unfortunately,
the baby's father was killed serving in Iraq before he ever had
a chance to see his child. With his untimely death, the baby's
mother was unable to provide paternity, rendering her baby not
only fatherless but without the survivor's benefits and health
insurance coverage available through the military. KIDS LEGAL
assisted this young mother in establishing paternity through
the courts and now her baby receives military and social security
survivor's benefits and health insurance to assist with his
multiple surgeries.
