The Syracuse Medical Legal Partnership (SMLP) is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the pediatric unit at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Syracuse University College of Law. SMLP provides legal advocacy to improve the overall health and well-being of vulnerable patient populations. SMLP also works to achieve systemic change through the multidisciplinary education of law students, medical students, residents, and other professionals whose expertise is important to this goal. Doctors and lawyers will learn to work collaboratively to attain favorable health outcomes for patients. Through this Partnership, patients receive critical legal assistance while professionals learn about using community resources and employing cooperative strategies to benefit patients and clients in their practices.
For Students
SMLP is a combined clinical offering and course for students interested in developing legal skills and policy analysis in children’s health. Students will provide non-litigation legal services (intake, advice, research, and referrals) for a busy pediatric clinic in Syracuse around legal issues that impact healthcare access and outcomes. This may include children’s access to education, safe housing, medical equipment, family court issues, government aid programs, transition-age youth, and more. Patients who have complex medical needs, are aging out of pediatric health care and social services, and need to preserve their legal rights, will be a special population served by this clinic. Students enrolled in the Syracuse Medical Legal Partnership must be co-enrolled in Child Health Policy and Legal Practice as the classroom component to this experiential course.
Child Health Policy and Legal Practice is a 3-credit, interdisciplinary course that will address how law and policy impact children’s health in the United States and influence parental decision-making over children’s health. Additionally, the course explores the role of child-serving systems (family court, education, public health) and how they attempt to maximize child healthcare outcomes, and where they fall short. This experiential course will cover how child health policy is developed, implemented, evaluated, and influenced—as well as the myriad ways child health policy may impact seemingly unrelated policy discussions and decisions. This course is a co-requisite for students enrolled in the Syracuse Medical Legal Partnership.
Faculty
Suzette M. Meléndez
Teaching Professor