Our programs involve healthcare and legal  professionals working together to advocate for the health and well-being of pediatric patients and their families.

We do this by ensuring access to resources, protecting rights, and improving health outcomes for children while training future generations of professionals to continue that caring.

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

HeLP’s educational component serves to strengthen the long-term effectiveness of its public health legal services by training law and healthcare professionals to understand and address the social needs and legal rights of low-income children and their families. The goals of the education programs are two-fold: (1) to increase knowledge about the legal, ethical, and policy issues affecting the health and well-being of low-income children; and (2) to foster respect, understanding, and a cooperative spirit among the healthcare and legal professions.

For Healthcare Professionals

HeLP offers interdisciplinary, in-service educational programs about the legal, ethical, and policy issues affecting children’s health and well-being. These programs include in-service training and education for healthcare professionals at Children’s, Children’s social workers, volunteer attorneys who work with HeLP, and medical staff, medical residents and students in training at Children’s. Presentations are made at all four campuses at Children’s during grand rounds, at pediatric roundtables, during social work and nursing staff meetings, and with school nurse liaisons and hospital teachers.

HeLP Legal Services Clinic

The HeLP Legal Services Clinic is an in-house, live-client clinic located at Georgia State University’s College of Law. The Clinic is an integral part of HeLP and provides a supportive learning environment for law students to develop practical lawyering skills in substantive legal fields related to the health and well-being of low-income children and their families. Cases referred to HeLP for legal representation and appropriate for student assignment are assigned to law students enrolled in the Clinic under the supervision of one of three faculty attorneys. The Clinic exposes students to areas of law related to children, families, poverty, and social welfare.

Students enroll in the Clinic for course credit. In HeLP Clinic I, students develop skills such as interviewing, counseling, negotiation, legal research, writing, drafting, and case management. HeLP Clinic II permits students to handle more advanced aspects of cases.

Please visit the HeLP Clinic‘s page on the Georgia State University College of Law’s website for enrollment information and an application for law students.

Externships & Practicums

Law students who are enrolled in other law schools – as well as other professional or graduate students who are enrolled in medicine, public health, nursing, and social work – are invited to apply through their schools to participate in HeLP’s externship and electives programs. Participants assist with client representation and thereby gain an understanding of the multiple determinants of children’s health, experience interdisciplinary approaches to problem-solving, and develop experience in dealing with the health issues of low-income children and their families.

ADVOCACY

HeLP collaborates with a number of other groups within the Atlanta community on behalf of low-income children in Georgia. These include the Barton Child Health Clinic at Emory University, the Georgia Advocacy Office, Voices for Georgia’s Children, the Georgia Council on Developmental Disabilities, and various Georgia State University units such as the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies’, Georgia Health Policy Center, and the School of Public Health. HeLP works with these and other groups on a systemic level to improve the health and healthcare access of all low-income children and families in Georgia.

EVALUATION & RESEARCH

The evaluation and research component of HeLP exists to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of the legal services and educational components.

Program evaluation

Data on the efficacy of our legal and educational services assist with internal quality assurance and efforts of management and fundraising necessary to support HeLP financially. The results help in stimulating participation in educational programs, promoting volunteer efforts among professionals in the community, and encouraging the referral of patients and their families to HeLP. Currently, the HeLP evaluation utilizes a multi-source, quasi-quantitative/qualitative approach. The sources of data include a national and program-specific literature review, internal and external program stakeholder interviews, participant satisfaction surveys, and analysis of de-identified program utilization data.

Institutional Review Boards

HeLP has obtained approval from the institutional review boards (IRB) at Georgia State University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for the evaluation and research component. Analyses of research data will guide growth, development, modifications and expansions at HeLP. Data also will be used for external publication of program quality, efficacy, and outcomes in order to encourage the development of programs similar to HeLP in other locations throughout the State of Georgia or nationally.

Resources

Our Community Collaboration Development Toolkit supports a multi-disciplinary approach to addressing the socio-economic determinants of health and improving outcomes by integrating resources and services.