According to Aspire Indiana Health, a person’s overall wellbeing is not limited to their physical health, but also their mental health and the total environment in which they exist – where they live, who they live with, where they work, and so on. These are things that don’t necessarily show up on someone’s medical chart but are absolutely critical to their long-term health and happiness. Aspire refers to them as the Social Determinants of Health.
As a nonprofit provider of comprehensive healthcare services, Aspire has long prided itself on creating innovative support programs to address these determinants, including housing and employment assistance and payee services. Now Aspire has added another: Legal aid services.
Aspire has entered into a partnership with Indiana Legal Services that includes a full-time attorney dedicated to providing legal support to Aspire clients referred to them. Assistance can include things such as:
- Assistance with Advance Directives and other legal healthcare needs
- Landlord/housing disputes
- Accommodations for physical disability or mental illness
- Utility bills/disconnection
- Expungement of criminal record
Jerry Landers, Aspire Vice President of Strategy & Business Development, says financial/legal difficulties often go hand-in-hand with poor health outcomes. A typical client who might need legal aid services is likely someone working a low-wage job lacking health insurance or paid time off, living paycheck to paycheck. They incur an illness that forces them to stop working, their medical bills pile up, and without a support system they find themselves at risk for poverty and homelessness.
“The access to an attorney impacts the individual’s financial wellbeing, which is the biggest indicator of health in the United States,” Landers said. “Zip code is the number one indicator of health outcomes because it’s so related to income.”