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Integrating Social Needs Care into the Delivery of Health Care to Improve the Nation's Health

Completed

An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will be developed to examine the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes and to address major challenges facing the U.S. health care system.

Description

An ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will be developed to examine the potential for integrating services addressing social needs and the social determinants of health into the delivery of health care to achieve better health outcomes and to address major challenges facing the U.S. health care system. These challenges, include persisting disparities in health outcomes among vulnerable subpopulations, often defined by age, race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, disability status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, family caregiver status, immigrant status, and geographic location. The committee will discuss: 1) approaches currently being taken by health care providers and systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities; 2) current roles of different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers; and 3) current and emerging efforts to inform the design of an effective and efficient care system that improves the nation's health and reduces health inequities. In creating its report, the committee will consider the:

1. Current scope and conceptual underpinnings of health-related social needs care, including: a) roles of providers such as social workers, gerontologists, physicians, psychologists, nurses, community health workers, and trained volunteers; b) linkage to community-based organizations and services; and c) the role of hospital community benefits.

2. Current state of the social needs care workforce in preventing, controlling, and treating health-related conditions (e.g., disciplines providing social needs care and their professional qualifications, breadth of settings, and roles for such care, including administrative, policy, and research roles; current training for each discipline related to provision of social needs care; and projected workforce needs to meet demographic changes).

3. Evidence of impact of social needs care on patient and caregiver/family health and well- being, patient activation, health care utilization, cost savings, and patient and provider satisfaction.

4. Opportunities and barriers to expanding historical roles and leadership of social workers in providing health-related social needs care, and the expanding role of other types of providers, such as gerontologists.

5. Emerging and evidence-based care models that incorporate social workers and/or other social needs care providers in interprofessional care teams across the care continuum (e.g., acute, ambulatory, community-based, long-term care, hospice care, public health, care planning) and in delivery system reform efforts (e.g., enhancing prevention and functional status, care management, and transitional care; improving end-of-life care; integration of behavioral, mental, and physical health services).

6. Initiatives to improve population health and reform health care financing that incorporate social needs care (i.e., payments tied to quality metrics and alternative payment models, such as Accountable Care Organizations, bundled payments, managed long-term services and supports, and Accountable Health Communities).

7. Realized and potential contributions of social needs care to make health care delivery systems more community based, person- and family/caregiver-centered, and responsive to social and structural determinants of health, particularly for vulnerable populations and communities, such as older adults and low-income families.

8. Opportunities for advancing the integration of social needs care services within community and health care delivery settings, such as expanding and improving interprofessional education, educating health care providers, payers, and patients about the benefits of social needs care services, and ensuring adequate reimbursement by public and private payers.

9. Kinds of transdisciplinary research needed to understand the complex interplay of psychosocial and environmental factors on health, and best to inform efforts to develop policies and practices that lead to improved health outcomes.


The committee will make recommendations on how to: 1) expand social needs care services; 2) better coordinate roles for social needs care providers in interprofessional care teams across the continuum of clinical and community health settings; and 3) optimize the effectiveness of social services to improve health and health care. Recommendations may address areas such as integration of services, training and oversight, workforce recruitment and retention, quality improvement, research and dissemination, and governmental and institutional policy for health care delivery and financing.

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Committee Membership Roster Comments

Dr. Janet Frank has been added as a member of the committee.

Sponsors

Adelphi University School of Social Work

Archstone Foundation

Association of Oncology Social Work

Bader Philanthropies

Baylor University Diana R. Garland School of Social Work

Binghamton University, SUNY, College of Community & Public Affairs Department of Social Work

Boston College School of Social Work

Boston University Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health

Brown School at Washington University in Saint Louis

California Association of Deans and Directors of Social Work Programs

Case Western Reserve University Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Sciences

Chicago Community Trust

Clark Atlanta University Whitney M. Young, Jr., School of Social Work

Colorado State University school of Social Work

Colorado State University-Pueblo Department of Social Work

Columbia University School of Social Work

Community Memorial Foundation

Council on Social Work Education

Episcopal Health Foundation

Erikson Institute Graduate School in Child Development

Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service

Georgia State University School of Social Work

Health Care Foundation of Western and Central New York

Helen Rehr Center for Social Work Practice

Howard University School of Social Work

Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation

Kaiser Permanente

Long Island University Social Work, Brooklyn and Post Campuses

Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work

Monmouth University School of Social Work

NASW Foundation

National Association of Social Workers

New York Community Trust

New York State Association of Deans and Directors of School of Social Work

New York University Silver School of Social Work

Ohio State University College of Social Work

Portland state University School of Social Work

Private: Non Profit

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Rutgers University School of Social Work

Saint Louis University of Social Work

Salem State University School of Social Work

San Diego State University School of Social Work

SCAN Foundation

Simmons College School of Social Work

Smith College School for Social Work

Society of Social Work Leadership in Health Care

Springfield College School of Social Work

St. Louis Group for Excellence in Social Work Research and Education

Stephen F. Austin State University School of Social Work

SUNY Stony Brook School of Social Welfare

University at Albany SUNY, School of Social Welfare

University of Alabama School of Social Work

University of Buffalo SUNY, School of Social Work

University of California Berkley School of Social Work

University of California Los Angeles Luskin School of Public Affairs Department of Social Welfare

University of Chicago School of Social Administration and the Center for Health Administration Studies

University of Cincinnati School of Social Work

University of Connecticut School of Social Work

University of Georgia School of Social Work

University of Hawaii at Manoa, Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work

University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work

University of Illinois at Chicago Jane Addams College of Social Work

University of Kentucky College of Social Work

University of Louisville Kent School of Social Work

University of Maryland School of Social Work

University of Michigan School of Social Work

University of Missouri School of Social Work

University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, School of Social Work

University of North Carolina- Charlotte, School of Social Work

University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work

University of South Carolina College of Social Work

University of South Florida School of Social Work

University of Southern California Dworak-Peck School of Social Work

University of Southern Mississippi School of Social Work

University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work

University of Utah College of Social Work

University of Washington School of Social Work

University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Helen Bader School of Social

University of Wisconsin- Whitewater Department of Social Work

Westfield State University Department of Social Work

Staff

Abigail Mitchell

Lead

Annalee Espinosa Gonzales

Megan Kearney

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