Impact Stories

The Network for Public Health Law’s Harm Reduction Legal Project released Supplantation in the Context of Opioid Settlement Funds following the arrival of more than $50 billion in opioid settlement funds. Since its publication, the brief has played an influential role in shaping public dialogue and policy discussions about the effectiveness of opioid settlement fund spending. By clarifying the legal boundaries around opioid settlement funds, the Network is empowering partners to design systems that ultimately support more resilient and just public health outcomes.

What legal authority exists to protect workers from extreme heat? In July 2024, the Network for Public Health Law released Law and Policy Considerations for Workforce Protections from Extreme Heat. The guide provides a foundation for public agencies, advocates, and coalitions seeking to design or strengthen worker-heat protections and exemplifies how public health law can operationalize equity in the face of environmental change, ensuring that those most exposed to harm are also the first protected by law.

In 2024, the Network for Public Health Law partnered with an academic expert serving as a representative on a governmental committee in a southern jurisdiction. By combining legal technical assistance, policy analysis, and subject-matter expertise, the Network directly informed policy leaders on matters of race equity, justice reform, and social determinants of health. The project demonstrates how law can serve to protect rights and build fairer systems.

As part of this project, the Network provided technical assistance and legal analysis, reviewed proposed changes to regulations, and produced an issue brief, Creating an Equitable Landscape for Lactation Consultant Licensure in Rhode Island. This brief became a key advocacy tool for the legislation and has since informed similar policy discussions in other states, including Utah.

Data are essential for public health surveillance, epidemiological investigation, research, program development, implementation and evaluation. A complex legal landscape, and lack of knowledge and training in law, result in actual or perceived barriers to data collection, use and sharing. As a result, opportunities are missed to use and share electronic data to improve the health of communities, promote wellness, address social determinants of health and increase health equity.

Organizations across the country reached out to the Network for our leadership and expertise, and we played a vital role in the nationwide response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Assessing Legal Responses to COVID-19, 50 top national experts review the U.S. policy response to the crisis. Their research details the widespread failure of the country’s leadership in planning and executing a cohesive, national response, and how the crisis exposed weaknesses in the nation’s health care and public health systems.

Public health agencies, health care workers, emergency managers, and policymakers are grappling with core legal preparedness and response efforts to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. Communities are reeling from COVID-19 on so many levels—from needing to increase or reallocate health care resources, to protecting the safety of front line and essential workers, to addressing the health and economic structural inequities the pandemic has laid bare. Never has there been such an urgent need for government, business, health care and other sectors to ensure their laws and policies protect the health of our communities.

Addressing legal and policy barriers to evidence-based interventions that center the health and dignity of people who use drugs.

In the midst of New York City’s largest measles outbreak in three decades, health officials from the city reached out to the Network for its expertise in utilizing vaccination laws and mandates to protect the public’s health. Network attorneys provided the agency with the research and information it needed to make the best evidence-based decisions for its communities—decisions that would prevent or survive legal challenge.

Due to a shortage of dental care providers, an inequitable burden of preventable oral health disease persists for many Americans. Public health officials in Minnesota sought legal and policy pathways to expand access to care in their state. Research and analysis by the Network outlined collaborative practice strategies dental professionals can utilize to expand access to oral health care in Minnesota and nationwide.

In 2019, the Network for Public Health Law is sharing stories of innovative, collaborative projects and initiatives aimed at improving the health of communities. These projects and initiatives are, at their core, strong collaborations between those who work in law, policy, philanthropy, advocacy and other sectors.