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December 1, 2004
Massachusetts Pediatric Hospital Finds New Way to Service and
Prevent Illness in Patients by Creating Legal and Social Service Network
As the number of children living in poverty continues to grow for the third
year in a row in the United States, doctors are seeing many more poor sick children. |
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Many of the illnesses suffered by this population are easily treatable. However, the
financial resources of parents—many earning $17,000 dollars or less per year--and
lack of education has increased the numbers sick children from low-income households in
the nation’s hospitals four fold.
To combat this trend, a team of physicians led by Dr. Barry Zuckerman of the Boston
Medical Center, Pediatric Department, decided to create a resource for low-income families
to obtain the social and legal services necessary to prevent illness in children. The
assistance offered is part of the hospital’s Family Advocacy Program, which is
staffed by six full-time lawyers and two social workers.
Doctors at the hospital often heard stories of children with asthma living in homes with
mold growing on walls and negligent landlords who refused to clean it up. They also heard
accounts of young people contracting pneumonia who resided in houses with inadequate or
non-existing heat. Physicians at the hospital concluded that if parents received the legal
and social services required, visits to the hospital would decline, resulting in improved
outcomes for children.
Advocates at the Boston Medical Center have helped 1,000 families this year with 60% now
receiving social services or benefits. With budgets at this and many other hospitals
becoming increasingly smaller doctors at this facility have decided to become proactive
and more resourceful in their approach to dealing with sick children from low-income
families.
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