River Hills and Legal Aid offering help

Program creates partnership between health centers and Iowa Legal Aid

BY CINDY TOOPES COURIER STAFF WRITER

OTTUMWA — A low-income woman who’s a domestic-assault victim may harm her health through worrying about protection and legal fees.

An older man who lost his job due to an injury and company cutbacks may be too proud to apply for disability the first time, let alone the second or third time.

River Hills Community Health Center, 201 S. Market St., has gained more help in handling health and legal concerns of low-income Iowans in eight southern Iowa counties.

Rick Johnson is River Hills’ chief executive officer and on Monday he announced two attorneys have joined the center’s Health and Legal Project, an Iowa grant program that created a partnership between community health centers and Iowa Legal Aid.

The attorneys are Ed Conrad of Sigourney and Karen Kopitsky, who recently moved to Ottumwa.

In September Conrad closed his 20-year private practice in Keokuk County to be a staff attorney for Iowa Legal Aid’s Ottumwa office. In the majority of his prior case work, he has helped Keokuk County residents in criminal, juvenile, real estate and family law matters.

“I’m an attorney who likes to help people and that’s what I want to do full time,” Conrad said. “Low-income people may not owe as much money as I do, but every single penny is more important to them.”

Originally from southern Missouri, Kopitsky has moved to Ottumwa after graduating from the University of Iowa in May 2008. Kopitsky has already passed Missouri’s bar exam and is board-certified there. Soon she will complete Iowa requirements for practicing law.

Before that, Kopitsky was a language teacher and taught Spanish.

“I grew up in southern Missouri, which is similar to the Ottumwa area. I believe in being part of the community you live and work in,” she said.

Johnson said the two attorneys will be a “full-time presence” because each one will work half the day at the Legal Aid office.

If the attorneys have to be gone, Conrad said Gwen Jackson, an Americorps member who’s bilingual, can gather basic information.

Johnson said River Hills is one of four centers hosting the Health and Law Project. The other sites are in Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Sioux City.

“You have to be an active patient at River Hills to qualify,” he said. “This has to be your medical and dental ‘home,’”

Johnson also said River Hills has “pushed hard” for state grant officials to “look at Ottumwa,” which is in Iowa’s two southern tiers of counties. Much of the area is impoverished.

Attorney Michelle Swanstrom of Ottumwa manages the Southeast Iowa Regional Office of Iowa Legal Aid. Her office serves 13 southern Iowa counties.

Swanstrom said the Health and Law Project unites the efforts of attorney at Iowa Legal Aid and the medical staff of the Iowa Nebraska Primary Care Association Clinics in several Iowa cities, including River Hills in Ottumwa.

Legal Aid will work with people who are new to the Ottumwa area, according to Swanstrom.

“There a whole new population of vulnerable people here,” she said. “Also, in many situations people are intimidated and if there’s no one there to advocate for them, people get lost in the shuffle.”

Swanstrom said she and Johnson “didn’t come up with this.” It started in Boston with a family advocacy group that included lawyers and doctors. The group concluded many patients’ health issues stemmed from, or were made worse by, legal problems.

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.



For more information

• River Hills Community Health Center, (641) 683-5773

• Legal Aid-Iowa, (641) 683-3166 or online at: www.IowaLegalAidFoundation

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