The Health Law Section, in conjunction with the D.C. Partnership to Improve End-of-Life Care and the D.C. Hospital Association, is continuing its healthcare decision-making project. Under this project, Health Law section members lead informational workshops about advance healthcare directives for senior citizens at senior centers,churches, synagogues, and elsewhere. Speakers provide copies of the advance directive forms approved for use in the D.C. area, instructions on how to complete the form, and, through an interactive video, suggestions about how to raise medical decision-making issues with family members. A number of workshops are scheduled for the first half of 2004, and interest on the part of senior centers in hosting these workshops is high.

The Health Law Section maintains its online Health Law Practitioner Directory (the first of its kind), which assists individuals and small businesses with limited financial resources in locating legal assistance with health law issues.

The section also continues to recruit members to staff the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program’s Advice and Referral Clinics, where members provide assistance and answer questions about health law issues.

Other projects conducted by the section include coordinating an effort to draft regulations pertaining to federal funding for D.C. residents to be screened and treated for breast and cervical cancer; and recruiting and training volunteers to provide parents attending parent-teacher conferences at D.C. schools with information about the D.C. Healthy Families Program, which provides free health insurance for children of low income families.

The section continues to cosponsor the Youth Law Fair and recruits D.C. Healthy Families to host a table top exhibit. Several families were signed up for the program during the fair.

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 Lori K. Mihalich-Levin at 202-828-0599 and Cathy Z. Scheineson at 202-756-8187.