On April 8, 2024, Kelsey Salazar and Sehrish Rashid delivered a presentation titled Beyond (SDOH) Screening: Strategies to Incorporate Health Literacy & Trauma Informed Principles at the Pennsylvania Association of Community Health Centers (PACHC) 2024 Integration Summit.
Patient-centered social needs assessment is an increasing priority for healthcare providers examining healthcare’s role in addressing social determinants of health (SDOH). While several national agencies and associations have made screening tools and materials available to successfully facilitate social needs assessment in clinical settings, it is equally important to build an environment around traditional screening practices that supports collaborative, non-stigmatizing redress of social needs.
Utilizing evidence-based strategies to incorporate health literacy and trauma-informed principles, right at the onset of strategic planning, provides an opportunity to address patients’ social needs in a systematic and non-stigmatizing way. This presentation covered practices identified through the decade-long work of Pennsylvania Health Literacy Coalition (PAHLC) as well as six years of collaborative implementation planning to address social needs.
Participants were exposed to communication strategies and workflow considerations that advance shared decision making and a universal precautions approach in order to maximize the effectiveness of social needs assessment and resource referral.
Special thanks to PAHLC founding members and consultants, Dr. James Plumb MD, MPH and Dr. Rickie Brawer PhD, MPH, MCHES, for their mentorship and support in making this opportunity possible!
We covered the intersection of Health Literacy and Trauma-Informed Healing-Centered Practices in great detail during our last year’s Health Literacy Month as well. You can find all the session recordings of Health Literacy Through the Lens of Trauma-Informed Healing event by clicking on this link here.