NIU College of Law Health Advocacy Blog

The Health Advocacy Clinic (HAC) is a medical-legal partnership with Aunt Martha’s Health and Outreach Center as well as Hesed House, the second largest homeless shelter in Illinois. Most of our clients are homeless. The ones who are not consist of low-income members of the community who struggle with poverty. Whether our clients stay in public housing or at Hesed House, they share one thing in common: their lives are stressful in a way that many of us cannot begin to comprehend. HAC clients frequently experience stress trying to secure basic needs such as shelter, food, and safety. The effects of such stress can have long-term effects on their bodies and overall health. “The longer the stress lasts, the worse it is for both your mind and body.” 1 Many of our clients are considered chronically homeless, which requires that they have been homeless for at least a year or have been homeless at least four times within the last three years and have a disability, and have therefore been sub...

“James” is client of the Health Advocacy Client who was recently awarded SSI benefits. This includes both a monthly payment and a larger award of back payments which will be paid out over several installments. As the Associate Director of Housing and Supportive Services at Hesed House, I act as his case manager. James began staying at Hesed House in April 2012. He became a Lighthouse client in December 2014 which means that he lives in an apartment in the Aurora community as part of our long-term, permanent supportive living program. When he was staying at Hesed, James was always getting sick because of his many health conditions. He is doing better now that he is staying in his own apartment. He even comes back and volunteers at Hesed when he physically can. Also, he’s very active in the Lighthouse community, especially by acting as a mentor for the younger residents which is beneficial for us as well. One of James’s goals since I first met him when he started staying at Hesed was to ...

Over the past several months, I have had the opportunity to briefly meet a number NIU HAC clients.  One Friday morning, I noticed that there was an older lady, with a piece of luggage, just sitting in the woods.  Later that day, I realized that this person was one of our clients and felt sad that she was sitting in the woods, all by herself on a cold Friday morning.  During our meeting with that client, and other clients since, I have been impressed with the fact that our clients are intelligent, personable, and capable.  In addition, I have come to the conclusion that we, as a society, could be doing so much more to help those who are homeless and in need.  We should explore how we can empower our clients to take advantage of all of their talents.  Specifically, there are ways to leverage technology and to teach practical skills that are in demand, such as bookkeeping and coding. Almost everyone in America has attended school (at least through the second year of high school).  In addi...

During my time working at the Health Advocacy Clinic over the summer, our group of three students was able to serve lunch in the cafeteria to guests in the PADS program. The cafeteria was pretty full; there were a lot of guests. Looking at the tables, I saw some guests who looked exhausted with their heads down. Still there were others attentive who ready to eat and very talkative. Then there were a few who sat alone in silence. We were met by a woman who worked in the kitchen and seemed to be running the show. She immediately asked, “Which one of you has the strongest stomach?” We all sort of looked wearily at each other and finally someone asked why. She informed us it was because that day, they were serving “delicious” pigs’ feet. The woman explained to us that a very nice large donation had come in and there were also specific requests for pigs’ feet. Right away, one of the other students stood up and said he would serve them, at which time I let out a sigh of relief, ran to the ch...

In July, I went to Oak Brook for a Social Security hearing. I was representing a client whose case I had been working on all summer. In preparation for the hearing, I wrote a pre-hearing memo, drafted questions to ask my client as well as the vocational expert, wrote an opening statement, and submitted medical records, support letters, and a pre-hearing memo to Social Security. I had a lot of expectations going into the hearing. First, after talking to someone who had been in front of the same judge for a separate hearing, I assumed the judge was going to be friendly. I had also learned that the format of Social Security hearings varies between the different judges. I was, therefore, planning to give an opening statement. I anticipated that the judge and I would ask the client and the vocational expert questions. I also understood that Social Security judges do not make decisions immediately following the hearing. I did not think we would find out whether my client was approved for six...

On August 29, 2016, Assistant Professor Michelle Lilly from NIU’s Department of Psychology gave a presentation to our HAC class on “Working with Clients Suffering from PTSD and Mental Illness.” She offered a lot of valuable information concerning this topic and shared some of her experiences throughout her career. In addition to her presentation, our class also read two articles concerning PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and mental illness. Both the presentation and the readings were enlightening and opened my eyes to my own misconceptions concerning the topic. Going into the presentation, I was somewhat prepared because the readings had broken down the basics of what qualifies as PTSD. However before reading the articles, I was under the impression that PTSD was mainly used to refer to symptoms experienced by war veterans or people in similar situations. During Professor Lilly’s presentation, she gave a little more insight on the qualifications for PTSD. One of the things she sp...

Today I visited my client with my supervisor and a Spanish interpreter so I could meet him and update him on the progress of his case. I introduced myself to my client and shook his hand. Via the interpreter, I explained that I was the new student attorney assigned to his case and how I was in the process of collecting his updated medical information to send to Social Security. I told him that part of how I planned to accomplish this was to schedule a meeting with his social worker. I explained that once I received all of the needed information, I would send a memorandum about his case to Social Security with the goal of having his case reviewed and approved without needing to wait for a hearing. Acknowledging his frustration with the rotation of student attorneys on his case each semester, I told him that I hoped that I would be the last student attorney he would have to see. I asked him if he had any questions. He did not but stated that he wanted to be present at the meeting with hi...