IHELP Pediatric Social History Tool

IHELP is a screening tool initially presented by Kenyon et. al. in 2007 as a tool for collecting pediatric social histories. As a result, it includes both household needs (financial strain, insurance, hunger, domestic violence, housing stability and housing conditions) and several child-specific domains (child educational needs, child legal status, and power of attorney/guardianship). Download a word version of this questionnaire below and read about its use in this 2016 article by Colvin et al. Many thanks to Dr. Jeffrey Colvin for sharing the questionnaire.

Download the questionnaire

Related publications:

Kenyon C, Sandel M, Silverstein M, Shakir A, Zuckerman B. Revisiting the social history for child health. Pediatrics. 2007;120(3):e734-738. PMID: 17766513. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2006-2495.

Sandel M, Hansen M, Kahn R, et al. Medical-legal partnerships: transforming primary care by addressing the legal needs of vulnerable populations. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010;29(9):1697-1705. PMID: 20820029. DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0038.

Garg A, Dworkin PH. Applying surveillance and screening to family psychosocial issues: implications for the medical home. J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2011;32(5):418-426. PMID: 21522019. DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0b013e3182196726.

Baer TE, Gottlieb L, Sandel M. Addressing social determinants of health in the adolescent medical home. Curr Opin Pediatric. 2013;25(4):447-453. PMID: 23744098. DOI: 10.1097/MOP.0b013e32836280ae.

Colvin JD, Bettenhausen JL, Anderson-Carpenter KD, et al. Multiple behavior change intervention to improve detection of unmet social needs and resulting resource referrals. Acad Pediatr. 2016;16(2):168-174. PMID: 26183003. DOI: 10.1016/j.acap.2015.06.001.

Colvin JD, Bettenhausen JL, Anderson-Carpenter KD, Collie-Akers V, Chung PJ. Caregiver opinion of in-hospital screening for unmet social needs by pediatric residents . Acad Pediatr. 2016;16(2):161-167. PMID: 26946270. DOI: 10.1016/j.acap.2015.06.002.