Mrs Lauren Hamill1, Anna Kearns2, Amy Rogers3, Naome Reid2, Dr Limin Buchanan2, Dr Jahid Khan3,4, Prof Natalie Munro5, Prof Alison Purcell6, Dr Katarina Ostojic7, Rachel Walker2, Prof Sue Woolfenden2,7
1Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, Randwick, Australia, 2Sydney Local Health District, Sydney, Australia, 3Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, Sydney, Australia, 4University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, 5Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia, 6Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia, 7University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Biography:
Lauren is a paediatric speech pathologist with 20 years of experience working in public health and non-government organisations. Lauren has a special interest in health equity and improving health access and outcomes for children and families from underserved and priority populations.
Abstract:
Background:
The social determinants of health (SDH) – the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, drive child health inequities (differential outcomes that are unjust, unnecessary, systematic, and preventable). For a family, adverse SDH are experienced at an individual level as unmet social needs (e.g., housing instability, food insecurity). In an already overwhelmed paediatric healthcare system, these unmet social needs are barriers to service access.
Evidence:
There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating that sensitive and systematic identification and referral pathways can effectively address unmet social needs and potentially lead to improved health and wellbeing outcomes. However, this practice is not routinely implemented in Australian paediatric Allied Health services.
Objective:
To determine whether the Routine Identification of Unmet Social Needs to Unlock Potential (RISE UP) model of care, an unmet social needs identification tool and referral pathway, is needed, feasible, and acceptable within a paediatric Allied Health intake context in Australia.
Methods:
A mixed-methods approach was utilised to design, implement, and evaluate the RISE UP model of care.
Results:
Preliminary results indicated the majority of parents/carers reported one or more unmet social needs (65%). The most common unmet needs were childcare (47%) and employment (46%). The RISE UP identification and referral pathways were acceptable to parents/carers (97%). Staff reported mixed acceptability (50%) and feasibility (54%).
Conclusions:
This study highlights that unmet social needs identification and referrals pathways are needed and acceptable to parents/carers. However, further exploration within paediatric Allied Health contexts in Australia is required.