Cristina Freitas

The Health Justice Practicum is a new one-semester, two-credit course enrolling a maximum of six students. Students will collaborate with frontline health care providers who serve marginalized populations on projects that require legal and problem-solving skills and where providers and/or patients have identified a systemic problem affecting patients' health and wellbeing. In Spring 2022, we will be collaborating with Project RESPECT, an integrated obstetrics, addiction medicine, and behavioral health clinic at Boston Medical Center that serves low-income pregnant and parenting people in recovery from substance use disorders (SUDs), especially opioid use disorders (OUDs). Project RESPECT providers have identified a problem in Massachusetts law that significantly harms low-income parents in recovery from SUDs and their children, disproportionately harming Black, Indigenous, or other people of color (BIPOC) families. Children born to women in evidence-based medication-assisted recovery (e.g., methadone treatment) must be reported at birth to the Department of Children and Families as if the mother were actively using drugs. Children born to BIPOC mothers are more likely than children born to white mothers both to be reported to child protection authorities and to be separated from their families as a result. The trauma of custody disruption has demonstrated serious effects on both recovering parents and child health and development. We will explore and advocate for possible legal and policy advocacy solutions to these issues--for example, changes in mandatory reporting laws and reformed child protection agency practices to eliminate discriminatory decisionmaking. Students will attend group meetings as well as work on research and advocacy. The project work will allow students to hone their research, analytical, writing, presentation, and problem-solving skills. Regular group meetings will deepen students' understanding of their projects by providing a broader context. Students will also meet individually or in teams with the faculty supervisor to discuss their project work. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option.