Chicago clinic prescribes legal help for housing
CHICAGO: She didn’t look sick, but Mahoghny Walker struggled to learn. Blood tests showed high levels of lead from old, chipping paint in her Chicago home. She had lead poisoning. So did her eight siblings. That much was clear to nurse practitioner Martha Glynn, the family’s primary care provider. What wasn’t: How to help their mother, Lanice Walker, navigate the Chicago Housing Authority’s system to move her kids to a safer home.
Glynn turned to the Health Justice Project, a joint effort of Erie Family Health Center and Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Since 2010, project attorneys have received more than 2,000 referrals about patients with legal issues such as housing, education, disability and family law. Nationally, the medical-legal movement, rooted in AIDS patient activism, now boasts nearly 300 hospitals and health centers in more than 30 states with partnerships helping vulnerable, low-income patients. In Philadelphia, a medical-legal partnership prevented utility shut-offs for hundreds of families with medical needs. In Atlanta, a partnership attorney helped with custody issues that cleared the way for a child to get a needed heart transplant. In Nashville, attorneys assisted patients facing evictions.
“Medical providers realize that sometimes these issues are more important for health and well-being than cholesterol and blood pressure problems,” said Dr David Buchanan, Erie’s chief clinical officer. “It also helps our care teams, by allowing our medical providers to focus on what they’re best trained to do.”
Fix the hazards
Homes built before 1978 usually have some leadbased paint. When it flakes, the dust can cause attention problems and harm school performance in children. Landlords with public housing contracts are supposed to fix the hazards. Led by Loyola law professor Emily Benfer, Health Justice Project attorneys are urging the CHA to increase protections for residents by lowering the blood levels of lead that trigger a risk assessment or repairs.
Currently, the CHA conducts a risk assessment when a child under age 6 has a blood level of 20 micrograms per deciliter, a level set in US Department of Housing and Urban Development regulations. Going to 5 micrograms per deciliter of blood for children of any age would align the program with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s definition of lead poisoning.
CHA officials plan to meet with the project and review the proposed standards, agency spokeswoman Wendy Parks said. “Our aim is to promote good health and reduce risk-factors, especially those associated with lead-based paint hazards,” Parks said. Glynn sees lead poisoning frequently. — AP