Rural Legal Deserts Are a Critical Health Determinant
Rural Legal Deserts Are a Critical Health Determinant
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DOI：
10.2105/ajph.2020.305807
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发表时间：
2020-10-01
影响因子：
12.7
通讯作者：
Termuhlen, Paula
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Statz, Michele;Termuhlen, Paula
我们引入了“农村法律沙漠”，或经历律师短缺的农村地区，作为一个有意义的健康决定因素。我们证明，农村律师的缺席对公共卫生有重大影响--这种影响因COVID-19而迅速加剧。我们的工作建立在最近的学术基础上，强调了律师在民事和刑事背景下的公共卫生相关性。它承认律师对跨专业保健团队和建立公平的与卫生有关的法律和政策至关重要。律师的干预改变了机构做法，有助于促进维持健康和恢复健康所需的稳定。然而，至关重要的是，许多农村居民无法获得法律支持。随着越来越多的人在新冠肺炎大流行期间经历失业、被驱逐和不安全的福利，律师需要将这些社会健康决定因素视为法律需求。因此，事实证明，美国农村律师越来越少的情况尤其严重--因为这一大流行背景，但也因为农村健康差距。我们认为，除非通过合作理解这些相互关联的现象，否则司法差距将继续加剧农村卫生不平等。
We introduce "rural legal deserts," or rural areas experiencing attorney shortages, as a meaningful health determinant. We demonstrate that the absence of rural attorneys has significant impacts on public health-impacts that are rapidly exacerbated by COVID-19.Our work builds on recent scholarship that underscores the public health relevance of attorneys in civil and criminal contexts. It recognizes attorneys as crucial to interprofessional health care teams and to establishing equitable health-related laws and policies. Attorney interventions transform institutional practices and help facilitate the stability necessary for health maintenance and recovery. Yet, critically, many rural residents cannot access legal supports.As more individuals experience unemployment, eviction, and insecure benefits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for attorneys to address these social determinants of health as legal needs. Accordingly, the growing absence of attorneys in the rural United States proves particularly consequential-because of this pandemic context but also because of rural health disparities. We argue that unless a collaborative understanding of these interrelated phenomena is adopted, justice gaps will continue to compound rural health inequities.