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Social Determinants of Health Resource Navigation and Connection across the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services

Saloni Gupta

 There is increasing evidence that reveals the powerful role of social resources in health outcomes. These resources are termed social determinants of health (SDOH), and according to the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, include “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age,” such as access to stable housing, nutritious food security, and access to transportation. Addressing SDOH is likely to reduce disparities in health in the U.S. and improve overall health outcomes. As such, many hospitals and clinics in the U.S., especially those in primary care, are attempting to address the SDOH of their patients by integrating SDOH screenings and resource navigation into their medical practices. The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) SDOH Integration Project Steering Committee was recently charged with implementing a process to address the SDOH of DHS patients. The objective of this formative evaluation project was to qualitatively assess the current state of SDOH integration across DHS hospitals and clinics, and to gather lessons learned to improve future implementations across DHS sites. The specific objective of this poster is to describe the implementation of the resourcenavigation and resource connection portions of the current SDOH integration projects.

Conclusions:

SDOH resource navigation and patient connection to resources can be successfully implemented in DHS settings. For SWs and MCWs, it is important to have resources for self-care and team support and integrate the SW/MCW team with the rest of the clinic staff. In order to successfully connect patients to resources, it is important for the SW/MCW to build partnerships with agencies, identify available resources before the SDOH screening occurs, and follow up with agencies once referrals have been made to close the loop. As this project expands, we will recruit frontline workers and patients for interviews to include all stakeholder perspectives. The next phase of analysis will involve further refinement of emergent themes and then mapping those themes to Behavioral Change Wheel theory to identify actionable recommendations for the DHS.