NIU College of Law Health Advocacy Blog

What do Miley Cyrus and holistic medical care have in common? Foam fingers, bears, and twerking aside, both are at the center of a movement. Miley’s movement is more about shock and confusion than substance, but the same cannot be said for the movement to provide more effective healthcare that is sweeping the nation. Medical-Legal partnerships are not alone in this quest. Across the country, legislators, lawyers, healthcare practitioners, social workers, and advocates for America’s poorest are realizing that there is no single, easily identifiable cause of poor health or poverty and that simple, one-dimensional solutions are ineffective. “The Hot Spotters,” an article that appeared in The New Yorker on January 24, 2011, highlights several champions of effective healthcare. Jeff Brenner studied the patterns of patients entering hospitals in Camden, New Jersey and found that, of the 100,000 people using medical facilities in Camden, about 1,000 people accounted for 30% of the city’s med

When most people think of homeless individuals they think of two groups: older people and single parents with dependent children. However, with the recession more young people are left jobless and homeless. Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 have the highest unemployment rate of adults. The young adult homeless population has recently grown over 9 percent. Some young adults can easily move back with their families but some do not have that form of family support to fall back on or don’t have families that can financially support them. With the young adult homeless population growing, homeless shelters need to start carving out a place for this group. For young adults to turn to a homeless shelter it needs to provide services that they require, such as employment, education and counseling programs. The programs that work best to help these young adults to move into a secure adulthood are ones that give them individual attention and the opportunity to develop marketable skills. T