How Is Access to Legal Resources and Advocacy Foundational to Health Justice?

Health justice as a movement incorporates research about how to more effectively leverage law, policy, and institutions to dismantle inequitable power distributions and accompanying patterns of marginalization that are root causes of health inequity.Legal advocacy is key to health justice because it addresses patients' health-harming legal needs in housing, public benefits, employment, education, immigration, domestic violence, and other areas of law.In medical-legal partnerships, lawyers and clinicians are uniquely positioned to jointly identify and remove legal barriers to patients' health, advocate for structural reform, and build community power.Case JM is 29 years of age and presents in distress to a municipal emergency department with an acute asthma exacerbation for the third time this month.JM is admitted and seen by a hospitalist, Dr H, who learns from JM that he is living in an apartment with mold and fears being evicted after falling behind on rent.Dr H is concerned that JM will continue to experience severe asthma exacerbations and overall poor health if he remains in substandard and unstable housing. CommentaryDr H is rightfully concerned about JM's health.Exposure to mold in homes has been linked to increased incidence and severity of asthma. 1,2,3If JM were to be evicted, his health would be further at risk, as eviction has been linked to myriad health conditions. 4Indeed, even the threat of eviction has been shown to harm health. 5On her own, Dr H lacks the tools in her toolbox to address JM's substandard housing conditions or prevent his eviction.JM is experiencing health-harming legal needs and requires legal advocacy both to ensure that his landlord remediates the mold in his home in accordance with the local housing code and to prevent his eviction. 6,7ch year, millions of Americans-and disproportionately people with low-income and people of color-have unmet legal needs related to housing and many other areas of law, such as public benefits, employment, education, immigration, child custody, domestic violence, and disability discrimination. 8,9,10Legal problems in all of these