Maria Champigny, LCSW- A Provider Story

Maria Champigny, LCSW

BostonMedical Center- Pediatric Hematology and Oncology

Most of the children that social worker Maria Champigny sees in BMC’s Department of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Program live with sickle cell disease. She supports them from infancy through the age of 22, and she helps them cope with the frequent and lengthy hospitalizations their chronic illness often entails. Her patients are predominantly African-Americans from low - to middle - income families, and they struggle with unmet needs like lack of nutrition, food access, and in adequate school accommodations, all of which require intervention.

Maria explains, for example, how the loss of utility services threatens the health of these children. “I’ll see a boy with sickle cell disease. He’s in pain, and his family comes into the clinic and tells me they couldn’t afford to heat their home.” The direct outcomes of an energy crisis—also documented in MLP|Boston’s June 2010 Patients-to-Policy Case Study—are clear to her. “It’s simple,” she says. “There’s no heat. He’s too cold. He’s admitted.”

Maria advocates for these patients by sending Utilities Shut-Off Protection Letters to the utilities company. (A sample letter can be found here.) This process is particularly efficient for her because the letter template is stored in BMC’s electronic medical record system; she can easily edit the letter from her desktop computer while she talks with her patients. Maria learned how to do this at one of MLP | Boston’s advocacy Trainings and says “the entire hospital should shut down when these trainings are held, so that all staff can attend and learn this important information!”

Income supports like food stamps and disability benefits help ensure food access and housing for the families of Maria’s patients, especially when a parent loses a job. Consequently, successful procurement of Social Security Income (SSI) benefits is one of the most common issues confronting patients. The SSI criteria for children with sickle cell disease have changed a frustrating number of times in recent years, and Maria frequently discusses eligibility requirements with MLP|Boston staff members who specialize in income supports. She’s even working with a staff attorney to standardize the eligibility forms and make them more readily accessible to providers.

Maria recalls a 17 year-old, chronically ill patient whose immigration and health insurance statuses were protected only until the girl turned 18. This patient was enrolled in a hypertransfusion program, and both she and Maria feared that her upcoming birthday would lead to deportation or, more immediately, a lapse in insurance coverage. Such a loss of coverage would have left the patient unable to pay for her ongoing blood transfusions.

Maria of course  is not trained in immigration law herself, but a staff attorney at MLP|Boston was able to assess the situation and advise the girl about her immigration status options. The legal issues were resolved, allowing Maria’s patient to continue the hypertransfusion program as a young adult.

Maria encourages medical providers who are new to medical-legal partnership to err on the side of asking for assistance when determining whether or not the MLP can address a patient’s needs. “Learn the basic issues that the MLP works with,” she advises. “Once you have that baseline, just pick up the phone and call. There’s never been a time when someone at MLP|Boston couldn’t help me in some way.”