Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) address legal issues, including challenges around immigration status, that contribute to health outcomes. This study evaluated our MLP—a collaboration between our pediatric primary care center and nonprofit legal organization. We assessed patient/family comfort and acceptability of conversations regarding immigration legal needs as well as attitudes toward incorporating legal services in a health care setting. Fifty-one participants were surveyed during medical visits and more than 80% reported immigration status concerns, despite nearly half never having sought legal assistance. Most participants (74.5%) found conversations around legal topics very appropriate (on a 5-point Likert scale) and 75.8% were completely comfortable having these discussions in the medical context. The majority (94.1%) identified primary care sites as an appropriate location for these discussions. These results indicate that asking about immigration legal needs within a health care setting is acceptable among immigrant families and primary care centers can be effective sites to co-locate services.
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