NIU College of Law Health Advocacy Blog

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Meeting the Client

Prior to this first day meeting my Health Advocacy Clinic (“HAC”) client, the only experience I had with client interviewing was at my graduate assistantship. However, my interactions in those interviews was limited since my supervisor was the lead investigator role. That said, I was finally able to take the “lead” when interviewing my HAC client, and I was truly looking forward to the experience. Before meeting my HAC client, I did a couple things to prepare. One, I made a script of main discussion points that I wanted to be sure to bring up during the interview. Two, I worked to memorize the first 20-30 seconds of my script so that my interview would have a “natural flow.” This would allow me to quickly build rapport with my client. The day finally came to meet my client and my nerves were getting the best of me in anticipation of his arrival. Ironically, my client had to cancel the meeting and rescheduled for the following week, so I used the additional time to continue

A Tale of Two Auroras

October 20th was a fairly busy day at the NIU Health Advocacy Clinic. The afternoon started with an interdisciplinary presentation about the roles of social workers from Neil McMenamin, Associate Director of Hesed House. Listening to him describe how faith and the Church led him to help others through social work really inspired me. He also described how he grew up on the east side of Aurora where poverty was not as prevalent as it is by where Hesed is located. This comment made me realize how we can sometimes forget that poverty exists where we least expect. Prior to working at the clinic, I had a much different perception of Aurora. I certainly did not view Aurora as an uber-wealthy suburb like Kenilworth or Wilmette but rather a typical, middle-class Midwestern suburb. The first thing that always came to mind when I thought about Aurora was the Chicago Premium Outlets shopping center which even has a Versace outlet. Homelessness was the last thing that came to mind when thinking o

Learning to Fly Solo

The Health Advocacy Clinic offers a new experience every day. I’ve been working with a client since I’ve been at the clinic. I was there for the initial interview. I’ve requested medical records on the client’s behalf. I’ve charted most of the client’s medical records. I’ve even had the client stop in a few times to sign releases or answer a few questions. However, all of these experiences have been shared with the clinic’s legal team. Even though I’ve been a student in the clinic for a while, I had yet to meet with a client on my own. The clinic is set up so we students don’t typically see clients solo, but given the busy nature of the clinic on one particular Friday, I met with client by myself. Going back to my second day at the clinic, and prior to meeting this client for first time, I had been told generally how this client handles meetings, along with some specific anecdotes. The tales weren’t the greatest. Being my second day, I was curious as to how the intake interview wou

Experiencing Hesed

The date was June 27 th , 2017. It was my first experience at Hesed House in Aurora, Illinois. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. I had been in the clinic seminar for approximately one hour, and I was ready to get to work. Not to work for pay, because I chose the unpaid Health Advocacy Clinic for the summer over a paid internship at a law office. I was ready to go to work, helping others who may not be able to hire private attorneys. I chose my passion. The beginning of my experience and one that I will never forget was my tour of Hesed House’s overnight shelter and transitional living quarters. The tour started in the lobby of Hesed House where a friendly volunteer answered phone calls and greeted guests and ended in the bright room of the Transitional Living Community where families sign up to spend quality time with their children in a warm and playful environment. I entered this experience and environment with an open mind and really tried to come with no assump

Nothing Takes the Place of Preparation

NIU Law students participating in the Health Advocacy Clinic (HAC) typically spend one or two semesters at the clinic. One of HAC’s goals is to provide law students with practical legal experience during their time in law school. The high law student turnover means that the HAC Director must be creative to ensure that students have the opportunity to work on client cases as much as possible during their short time at the HAC. When students arrive at the beginning of the semester, client cases, usually involving the denial of Social Security disability benefits, are at various stages of development. Some cases are just beginning while others are weeks away from the long-awaited Social Security administrative law judge hearing. How is this high law student turn over and case development dilemma resolved? It is solved by assigning students to new, ongoing, or concluding client cases within days of arrival at the clinic and working to quickly prepare students to perform their assigned task

Power of Attorney

It was Friday morning and I was waiting for a client to come fill out her Power of Attorney (POA) for Health Care. I was really excited for this because I had not had the opportunity to do an initial client interview yet, and this would be my first time assisting a client with completing a POA. I was also grateful I was able to have the experience of doing one, since POA Day was Wednesday,and I am scheduled Fridays at the clinic. Going into the situation I was very nervous. I had never done a POA before and I reviewed the POA documents, but actually doing interviews is always different than preparing for them. I definitely have seen that play out a lot this semester. You can prepare all you want for client interactions, but often they go nothing like you planned. Going into this experience I expected the client to have a lot of questions. This document is for long- term planning, and the population we work with at the Health Advocacy Clinic often does not have a lot of long-term plans