Health Advocates

Principal Investigator: Harrison Alter, M.D., M.S.

Project Directors: Dennis Hsieh, M.D., J.D., Resident, Department of Emergency Medicine; Lia Losonszy, M.D., M.P.H.,  Resident, Department of Emergency Medicine; Valerie Edwards, LCSW, Director, Department of Social Services; Rebecca Alvarado, MSW, Director, Health Advocates; Kimi Tahara, Coordinator, Health Advocates

Health Advocates is an innovative project, jointly developed by the Levitt Center and the Alameda Health System, that aims to enhance our capacity to meet the resource and legal needs of our patients from a perspective that recognizes the critical importance of social and economic determinants of health. Our goal is to improve the health of low-income patients, enhance the patient experience, increase access to primary care, and ultimately reduce emergency room utilization, inpatient hospitalization, and health care costs. The project brings together student volunteers, social workers, and lawyers to provide a continuum of care for our patients’ social, economic, and legal needs that allows each patient advocate to work at the top of his or her license.

This project has its roots in the creative resource desk model of Health Leads as well as the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) model. Health Leads is a non-profit organization that mobilizes the volunteer power of college students to connect patients with community services that are critical to health and well-being.

The other component of this project is our medical-legal partnership with the East Bay Community Law Center, in collaboration from Centro Legal and Bay Are Legal Aid. MLPs help to bridge the gap that often exists between a patient’s medical recovery in the hospital and barriers to health that exist in the home environment. Legal needs that directly impact health include access to public benefits, housing subsidies, sanitary housing conditions, discrimination in employment and education, legal asylum, and domestic violence.

The creation of Health Advocates incorporating both a Health Leads model and a medical-legal partnership with our existing social work staff at Highland has improved patient care, addresses social and economic determinants of health, and reduces overall healthcare costs.  The project opened in January 2013 with a focus on the Emergency Department and the HOPE clinic.  We quickly expanded to 7 desks throughout the Alameda Health System.