Guide to implementing social risk screening and referral-making

Introduction

Adverse social determinants of health – referred to in this guide as social risks – include contextual factors such as food, transportation, and housing instability, and social isolation. Collecting information on these risks can help ambulatory care teams understand and address how these factors impact their patients’ health.

This pragmatic guide will help your clinic implement social risk screening and (if desired) referral-making, or improve your current practices. It is meant to be used by any primary / ambulatory care staff interested in implementing social risk screening and referral-making.

Overview

This guide uses a five-step roadmap for implementing or improving social risk screening and related activities at your clinic. It provides tools and materials to support each step, and a list of useful resources.