HEAL’s Good News for the Low-Income

Known as the HEAL Project, the program is a partnership between the Lynchburg-based Virginia Legal Aid Society and the Lynchburg Family Practice Residency Center. Both of those groups serve low-income residents free of charge.

By working together, however, they can more efficiently reach more people in the area.

“Low-income people have lots of obstacles to living healthy lives,” said David Neumeyer, executive director of the Legal Aid Society. So when the lawyers assisting them discover health problems in their surroundings, they will now be able to call on a team of doctors to help out.

The HEAL Project members could resolve a problem in this way: A physician determines that a moldy apartment is contributing to a patient’s asthma. Dr. Pat Pletke of Family Practice Residency said the traditional way of dealing with that problem was to connect the patient with a social worker. But that didn’t always resolve the legal maze confronting the patient.

Now a doctor will refer the patient to the Legal Aid Society where a lawyer could use the court system to force the landlord to clean up the mold or break the lease.

The HEAL Project, which stands for Health, Education, Advocacy and Law, extends beyond landlord-tenant matters,

Jeremy White, managing attorney for the Legal Aid Society, said the program uses the legal system to ensure that low-income residents and their children receive public benefits, such as food stamps and Medicaid, and to identify mental health issues in the families.

The combination of medical services and legal services can introduce low-income families to options they may not have known were available. And that, in the long run, could save money.

Pletke pointed out, for example, that removing a person from an unhealthy living situation can reduce hospital costs and expensive medical costs down the road.

Neumeyer added that legal intervention in a contaminated household can reduce the need for prescription drugs and visits to the emergency room, the most expensive medical care that’s available.

The Family Practice Residency Center teaches young doctors the details of running a family medical practice. Part of that training includes a seminar offered by White with the hope that the physicians will apply the experience they have gained through exposure to the Legal Aid Society when they begin their own family practices.

Combining the talents of attorneys and physicians for the benefit of low-income families is just another way to strengthen the fabric of the community. Lynchburg is fortunate to have professional folks who are so willing to help those who need help but don’t always know where to turn.