Managing the social determinants of health: Part II: Leveraging assessment toward comprehensive case management

Behavioral Learning Objectives: This article will: Explore health care industry considerations for the social determinants of health (SDH). Identify industry initiatives and reimbursement strategies. Discuss SDH-focused assessment tools for professional case managers. Present and apply the Comprehensive Case Management Path. 

Primary Practice Settings(s): Applicable to health and behavioral health settings where case management is practiced. 

Findings/Conclusions: When professional case managers use comprehensive assessments to inform their work with populations impacted by the SDH, barriers to care access can be more readily addressed (e.g., poverty, employment, housing insufficiency, health literacy, migration, and medication adherence). Initiatives, programming, and treatment plans can be advanced to provide target populations with individualized and appropriate intervention. Case management involvement can also be leveraged to coordinate and facilitate successful interprofessional team efforts (Casteneda, Holmes, Madrigal, DeTrinidad, Beyeler, & Quesada, 2015; Davis, 2016). 

Implications for Case Management Practice: Case managers must engage clients from a wholistic lens that reflects their standards of practice and accounts for all domains of assessment: medical, cognitive and behavioral, functional, and social. Comprehensive tools to guide a robust and exhaustive screening of issues and opportunities ensure more successful outcomes.