As health promotion professionals, we have the opportunity, and indeed, the obligation to apply the same best practices we routinely apply to other initiatives to our efforts to address social risk factors and unmet social needs. Failing to adopt a rigorous and systematic approach could easily result in unsuccessful attempts that jeopardize the credibility of and support for interventions to level the social gradient of health. 15 Drs. Osnick and Wilson share an inspiring illustration of one organization's transformational journey to turn their approach for assisting clients with obtaining social services inward to create health equity among their own team members. The issue concludes with a description of how the University of Michigan is embracing their role as an anchor institution in the community to blaze a trail to understand and address social needs for their faculty and staff.If you have an innovative approach for addressing social risk factors, we'd love to hear about it. References 1. DeAngelis T. Trends report: targeting social factors that undermine health. APA Monit. 2017; 48(10):55-57.
L, et al. Effect of community health worker support on clinical outcomes of low-income patients across primary care facilities: a randomized clinical trial.
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