This bonus episode is a special addendum to the first five episodes, which all focused on health care sector efforts to increase Awareness about both patient and community-level social conditions. Laura Gottlieb, MD, MPH, SIREN Director and Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF chats with SIREN Advisor Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School and pediatric emergency physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. They and other participants in the lively Zoom meeting brought up questions such as:

• What’s changed in the last 13 years with clinic-based social risk screening?
• Should you screen for a social need when you don’t have a resource to meet the need?
• What can smoking cessation teach us about social risk screening?
• Should we ask patients if they want assistance instead of screening?

Recommended references:

• Cullen D, Abel D, Attridge M, Fein JA. Exploring the gap: food insecurity and resource engagement. Academic Pediatrics. 2021.
• De Marchis EH, Alderwich H, Gottlieb LM. Do Patients Want Help Addressing Social Risks? JABFM. March 2020.
• De Marchis EH, Ettinger de Cuba S, Chang L, et al. Screening Discordance and Characteristics of Patients With Housing-Related Social Risks. Am J Prev Med. 2021.
• Fritz CQ, Thomas J, Brittan MS, Mazzio E, Pitkin J, Suh C. Referral and resource utilization among food insecure families identified in a pediatric medical setting. Acad Pediatr. 2021.
• Hassan A, Scherer EA, Pikcilingis A, et al. Improving social determinants of health: effectiveness of a web-based intervention. Am J Prev Med. 2015.
• Sandoval VS, Jackson A, Saleeby E, et al. Associations Between Prenatal Food Insecurity and Prematurity, Pediatric Health Care Utilization, and Postnatal Social Needs. Acad Pediatr. 2021.