Social workers are key to addressing social determinants of health in integrated care settings

ABSTRACT

Social workers play an important role in assessing social determinants of health (SDH) and providing behavioral health services in integrated care settings. Evidence suggests that integrated care interventions improve quality of life and other patient outcomes. However, the ambiguous role of social workers on the interdisciplinary team, the lack of protocol in SDH screening and intervention, and restrictions due to healthcare reimbursement limit social workers’ ability to intervene. Future directions include standardizing integrated care models, evaluating integrated care’s efficacy to address SDH, incorporating SDH into interprofessional training including role clarification and reimbursing for SDH assessment and intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Social determinants of health
• integrated care
• health equity

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.