Building a social prescription intervention: a mixed methods study
Dr. Celia Kwan, PGY2
Supervisor: Dr. Gita Wahi
The Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) are defined by the World Health Organization as: “conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age”. Social prescription describes the referral of patients to social or community services to address these SDoH and unmet social needs, and improve their wellbeing and health. In a 2016 policy statement, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) highlighted the importance of addressing unmet social needs in pediatric clinical encounters. However, there is a a paucity of research that measures these social prescriptions’ impact on health outcomes. Hence, we would like to work with the families at the McMaster Children’s Hospital to identify feasible strategies to screen for and address unmet social needs, which may ultimately improve the health trajectory of marginalized children. We will be doing a two phase, sequential explanatory mixed methods study.
Objectives:
- Review the social determinants of health in pediatrics and the current status of what is known about social prescriptions
- Discuss the process of a mixed methods study
macpedsrrt.ca 