A class on Law and Social Work as Social Determinants of Health brought together FIU law, medical, and social work students, led by Jordan Dollar, supervising attorney for the FIU Law Practice, alongside Medical School Professors Nana Aisha Garba, M.D. and Lizzeth Alarcon, M.D., and Social Work Professors Lourdes Martin and Beatrice Farnsworth. The session is part of the Community Engaged Physician course — an academic component of the Green Family Foundation Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program (NeighborhoodHELP).
NeighborhoodHELP immerses students in the community as members of interprofessional teams that include medical, nursing, social work, physician assistant, education, and law students. They all work together to provide household-centered care. Through the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) between the FIU College of Law and the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, students from the Community Lawyering Clinic contribute to this effort by taking comprehensive patient and household histories and providing legal services to improve the quality of life of household members.