Martha L. Minow, Foreword: Medical-Legal Partnerships Raise the Bar for Health and Justice, in Poverty, Health and Law: Readings and Cases for Medical-Legal Partnership xv (Elizabeth Tobin Tyler, Ellen Lawton, Kathleen Conroy, Megan Sandel & Barry Zuckerman eds., 2011).
Abstract: Not every illness has a biological remedy. Poverty, Health and Law presents health in the broader social context of people's lives, providing insights into the advancement of health through legal advocacy and interdisciplinary solutions to complex social problems. Focusing on basic legal rights and their relation to health--income and employment, housing, education, legal status, and personal safety--the authors provide information and insight into how the law may be used as a tool to improve health and how health care providers and lawyers can work together to invoke more effective and preventive remedies for patients and clients. As America prepares for major reform of its health care system, Poverty, Health and Law brings to the forefront the need to address the root causes of illness and poor health, particularly among vulnerable populations, by exploring remedies and innovations both within and outside of the health care system.