On February 9, Orange Sparkle Ball in collaboration with Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University hosted the fifth of their Public Health + Webinar series about the intersection of public health and other disciplines. We were thrilled to listen as our founder, Meaghan Kennedy, MPH sat down with Brooke Silverthorn, JD to discuss the importance of law and social justice in public health.
Like public health, social justice is incredibly broad and encompasses various approaches across several disciplines. However, the overarching work involves achieving equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities for all. In the public health sphere, we recognize the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) as areas that need to be addressed in order to achieve better health outcomes and achieve social justice. Brooke also works in this space through the Health Law Partnership Legal Services Clinic at the Georgia State University College of Law.
Like many of us, her path to Public Health began in a different sector. In her early career, Brooke worked as a lawyer within the Department of Children and Families. In this role, she frequently witnessed Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES), which are a list of potentially traumatic events and aspects of a child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding. A study conducted by the CDC and Kaiser-Permanente found that some populations are more vulnerable to experiencing ACEs because of the social and economic conditions in which they live, learn, work, and play, which are components of the SDoH.
Brooke’s passion for addressing the SDoH in vulnerable populations flourished here. She shifted her focus into policy work. In her words “looking at this issue from the individual level…. wasn't enough for me.”
“When we make those policy changes...on a systemic scale, we are also helping… the individuals.”
Brooke’s current work with the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic involves making those larger-scale changes to improve the health and well-being of children from underserved or vulnerable communities. The HeLP Clinic is a partnership between the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and the Georgia State University College of Law that provides free public health legal services that address social, economic, and environmental factors through a medical-legal partnership. Brooke gave us a great example of what a medical-legal partnership might look like:
Consider a child who has been diagnosed and prescribed medication for severe asthma. After months of taking the medication, the child continues to have recurring episodes. At this point, the pediatrician asks questions such as, “Is the child taking the medication as prescribed?” Assuming, the child is adhering to the prescription, the doctor might feel that he or she has exhausted the tools of a medical professional to address this issue. Now, here’s where the HeLP model enters.
A doctor that is trained in a medical-legal partnership might examine the child’s health with a different lens and ask questions such as, “What is going on in the child’s environment that could be causing these asthma attacks?” The doctor now can refer the child to a legal team that talks directly to the child’s family to understand other factors that impact health. Through these conversations, the legal team might discover that the family is living in a building that has mold and the landlord won’t address the issue. The legal team can then provide services that work to address these root causes.
The model that the HeLP clinic utilizes is at the crux of public health innovation. Unlike some other medical-legal partnerships, the HeLP model has a classroom component where law and medical students work side-by-side to address the SDoH. This is particularly exciting for us here at Orange Sparkle Ball as, like Brooke, we love cross-disciplinary approaches to innovate solutions for complex problems. Similar to the HeLP model, our approach frequently involves not only working within our cross-disciplinary team to foster internal innovation but also encouraging our clients to consider how knowledge from other sectors can contribute to their goals.
“The health law partnership is thinking about ways that we can stay innovative… so that we can continue to serve as a model and advise other people on the lessons we’ve learned.”
Brooke shared with us a great success story where medical and law students in the program collaborated to impact a child who had been denied social security disability income. Although the student struggled both academically and socially, they did not meet the standards set by the social security administration. One of the team members suggested looking at how many standard deviations below the norm for standardized tests the child was in in order to visually illustrate the student’s academic performance. This approach not only was successful in winning the case but demonstrated interdisciplinary collaboration, where the students collectively generated the best evidence they could for their client.
What’s really incredible about Brooke’s work with the HeLP Clinic is that she's not only making a difference systemically but she’s also directly helping individuals. By fostering collaboration between medical and law students, she contributes to a model that considers health holistically, ultimately breaking silos that exist in systems such as healthcare. As an educator, Brooke enlightens students who will be leaders in their fields and can advocate for these holistic approaches.
The notion of systemic change and interdisciplinary collaboration has been a recurrent theme across several of the Public Health + webinars. It has become apparent that in order to impact individuals, and ultimately promote systemic change it is necessary to break the silos that exist between sectors. It’s not easy to accomplish but models such as the HeLP Clinic serve as a testament that it is possible.
To view previous and upcoming installments in the Public Health + Series click here.
Written by Liris Stephanie Berra, Public Health Innovation Analyst
Liris is a Master of Public Health student at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. She is part of the Global Health department, pursuing a concentration in Community Health Development and a certificate in the Social Determinants of Health.
