University of Virginia Health System

IN THE NEWS: Dr. Barry Zuckerman, Founder of the National Center, Medical-Legal Partnership Visits UVA CHAP Team!

Charlottesville CHAP Team (left to right): Alex Gulotta, Esq., Dr. Barry Zuckerman (back row), Greg Nelsen, Dr. Diane Pappas, Liz Moore, Carolyn Pointer, Esq. (not pictured: Kimberly Emery)  

Dr. Barry Zuckerman, founder of the National Center, Medical-Legal Partnership and The Joel and Barbara Alpert Professor and Chair of Pediatrics at Boston Univeristy School of Medicine, came to Virginia for a 3 day visiting professorship March 18-20.  While he was here, he took time out to meet with the Charlottesville CHAP team and brainstorm ideas about how to further develop and refine our medical-legal partnership program.  He was also able to do the same with the Richmond CHAP team and with Michele Peters, Esq. who is in the process of establishing a medical-legal partnership in Norfolk in collaboration with the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters.  As a result, the Virginia Medical Legal Partnership is re-energized and focused on developing both our individual programs and our statewide network to serve families in need most effectively.   In particular, we are exploring how to develop a systemic advocacy agenda for the coming year, as well as how to expand our services to subspecialty populations.   

The program, entitled "A Culture of Advocacy" sought to bring increased awareness of the importance of advocacy for child health, to promote dialogue between the health care systems and other stakeholders for children's health, and to find ways to further develop a culture of advocacy in our health care systems and our communities.

While in Virginia, Dr. Zuckerman also worked with residents, faculty and community leaders at both UVA and MCV.  He presented Grand Rounds, "Transforming Pediatric Health Care to Reduce Health Disparities," describing how stress and other effects of poverty become embedded physiciologically in children exposed to inadequte resources and excessive stresses during childhood.  

The visiting professorship was funded through the Leonard P. Rome Visiting Professorship CATCH Grant program through the American Academy of Pediatrics, as well as through support from the University of Virginia Department of Pediatrics and the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Pediatrics.

1st Annual VA MEDICAL-LEGAL PARTNERSHIP CONFERENCE HELD SEPTEMBER 26, 2008!  

The 1st statewide medical-legal partnership took place on Friday September 26, 2008 in Charlottesville.  Ellen Lawton, Executive Director of the Medical-Legal Partnership for Children National Center in Boston spent a full day with us, working with attorneys and health care providers from across the state to facilitate the continued development and implementation of medical-legal partnerships throughout VA!  Representatives from northern Virginia, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lynchburg, Richmond, Charlottesville, and Washington DC attended the day-long conference.  Work to continue to develop the statewide partnership will continue in January, 2009 with meetings of the legal subgroup and the medical subgroup scheduled.  The entire group will come back together, probably in the late spring of 2009. 

The Child Health Advocacy Program (CHAP)  at the University of Virginia is a unique medical-legal collaboration between the University of Virginia Children's Hospital, the University of Virginia School of Law, and the Legal Aid Justice Center designed to improve the health and welfare of families with children who receive their health care at the University of Virginia.  The program has received an award of $125,000 from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund which allows the program to staff a full-time program attorney who works on-site at the UVA Children's Hospital and thus improves family access to this important program.  The attorney also provides training sessions for medical staff on legal issues that afffect family and child health.  Other programs are located in Richmond, Lynchburg, Suffolk, and Northern Virginia.  Plans are also underway to develop a statewide network.   See our CHAP webpage for all the details! 

The Child Health Advocacy Program provides the following services:

• Volunteers from the Legal Aid Justice Center are available to help families with a variety of legal problems that affect their health and well-being. Any health care provider or social worker can make a referral.  For urgent needs, contact Greg Nelsen, Social Work,  at 924-5851.
• Consultation, training and resources are available for health care providers and staff.
• A Virginia Guide to Program Development is available for other programs interested in starting a Child Health Advocacy Program.  Our Child Health Advocacy Program team are also available to provide training sessions to other sites who want to develop a program and become part of a statewide network.  Call 434-924-9130 for more information. 
• Program evaluation and patient-family satisfaction tools are presently under development.  

Family Services :   Learn more about the legal services  that may be available for families through the Child Health Advocacy Program. 

Provider Services :  Learn more about the services that are available for health care providers and staff.

Child Health Advocacy Program Brochure

About Betty Sams Christian

Betty Sams Christian was a role model for women in business and for compassionate care of those in need.  In 1982, at the age of 60, she stepped up to run her family's business, the Central Coca Cola Bottling Company, Inc. in Richmond, Virginia.  For 21 years, as President and Chairman of the Board, she successfully managed this enterprise.  She stood up to "big Coke," refusing to amend her company's bottling agreement so that her companies would continue to be supplied with syrup made from cane sugar rather than from corn syrup.  She maintained a profitable and independent corporation while always caring for her employees and those in need.

She was also a role model for women in business and encouraged others to pursue business careers.  She supported the organization of the Women's Bank in Richmond. 

Mrs. Christian was always willing to help those in need, and those who knew her best remember countless times when she, unassumingly, reached out to help someone who needed a helping hand.

Mrs. Christian, through the generosity of her foundation, the Burford Leimenstoll Foundation, has generously endowed the UVA Child Health Advocacy Program.  Her legacy in caring for those in need and her memory will continue to be honored in the ongoing work of the Child Health Advocacy Program as it reaches out to help central Virginia families in need.

Mrs. Christian was born in Staunton, Virginia.  She received a B.A. degree in Physics from Hollins College and a Masters in Social Work from Colombia University.  She died in 2006.