The Health Law Section recruits members to staff the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program’s Advice and Referral Clinics, where they provide assistance and answer questions about health law issues.

Several years ago, the section also published two versions of a Patient Rights Manual, one for practitioners and one for the public. They need revision and updating. The section is seeking volunteers to help edit these manuals.

Another project the section hopes to rejuvenate is a healthcare decision–making project it has presented in the past, in conjunction with the D.C. Partnership to Improve End-of-Life Care and the D.C. Hospital Association. As a part of this project, Health Law Section members led informational workshops about advance health care directives for senior citizens at senior centers, churches, synagogues, and elsewhere. Speakers provided copies of advance directive forms approved for use in the D.C. area, instructions on how to complete the forms, and, through an interactive video, suggestions about how to raise medical decision-making issues with family members. Volunteers to re-establish this project would be most welcome.

Other projects organized by the section have included:

• Conducting panels on health law careers at area law schools (we’ve done two this past year, at Howard University Law School and the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke Law School, and we invite your participation on future such panels);
  
• Marching together at such health care-related  events as the 2010 D.C. Walk for Lupus; and
  
• Cosponsoring the annual Youth Law Fair held each spring at D.C. Superior Court.

To become a member of the Health Law Section Community Outreach Committee, send e–mail to the D.C. Bar Sections Office at sections@dcbar.org.

For more information on the Section’s community outreach activities, contact Outreach Coordinators Saundra Brown-Savoy at 202-865-4808, Lori Mihalich Levin at 202 828-0599 or Melinda Murray at 301-754-7499.