Robyn Golden, LCSW, associate vice president of population health and aging at Rush University Medical Center, has been selected to serve as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee on Integrating Social Needs Care into the Delivery of Health Care to Improve the Nation’s Health.
The Academies’ Health and Medicine Division — the former Institute of Medicine — will conduct a consensus study to advance the progress in addressing social needs and social determinants of health in the delivery of health care in order to improve health care outcomes.
While social determinants of health — the economic and social conditions that influence differences in health outcomes — gradually are becoming more recognized in health care, better care coordination increasingly is needed to help address inequities in health care.
“When we include social needs in health care, the health care costs are less and the outcomes are better,” said Golden. “We are collaborating with other institutions to address inequities that include education, economic vitality (jobs) and the physical environment where people live and work.”
Golden and Rush’s Center for Health and Social Care Integration — which seeks new and creative care models that help address social issues that may get in the way of the health and wellness of patients — played key roles in organizing the study..
The National Academies’ committee on Integrating Social Needs Care into the Delivery of Health Care to Improve the Nation’s Health will meet quarterly over 18 months and will make recommendations for incorporating providing for complex social needs into health care. The first meeting was held on July 16 and 17 at the National Academies in Washington, D.C. The next meeting will be held on Sept. 24 and 25.
“While this study will address social needs that people have within the health care delivery system, leadership and cross disciplinary experience is what’s needed to push innovative community health efforts forward,” said Golden. “This committee is focused on finding ways of supporting and better serving our underrepresented populations.”
The consensus study process includes careful thought and discussion by the committee that will issue a report to the public in late 2019 or early 2020.
The committee will review and discuss the following issues:
- Approaches currently being taken by health care providers and health systems, and new or emerging approaches and opportunities
- Current roles of different disciplines and organizations, and new or emerging roles and types of providers
- Current and emerging efforts to inform the design of an effective and efficient care system that improves the nation’s health and reduces health inequities.
The committee will make recommendations on how to achieve the following goals:
- Expanding social needs care services
- Better coordinating roles for social needs care providers in interprofessional care teams across the continuum of clinical and community health settings
- Optimizing the effectiveness of social services to improve health and health care. Recommendations may address areas such as integration of services, training and oversight, workforce recruitment and retention, quality improvement, research and dissemination, and governmental and institutional policy for health care delivery and financing.
Over 60 social work schools and associations, along with 12 other philanthropic organizations, have funded the project. The 12 other funders include the Chicago Community Trust, CAPS Healthy Communities Foundation in Riverside, Illinois, and Community Memorial Foundation, in Hinsdale, Illinois. A list of funders can be found on the National Academies website.
Golden has worked at Rush for 14 years, has extensive experience in the field of aging and is a social worker of national prominence, as evidenced by her past role as the chair of the American Society on Aging, her service as a John Heinz Senate Fellow working in the office of then Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and her receipt of the Maxwell A. Pollack award from the Gerontological Society of America.
Under Golden’s leadership, Rush has been recognized for developing significant care coordination programs, including the Bridge Model of transitional care and the Ambulatory Integration of Medical and Social (AIMS) care management model.
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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide expert advice on some of the most pressing challenges facing the nation and the world. This work helps shape sound policies, inform public opinion, and advance the pursuit of science, engineering, and medicine.
The Center for Health & Social Care Integration (CHaSCI) elevates learnings from Rush’s work to break down barriers to health for patients, their families, and the surrounding communities. In addition to developing and disseminating evidence-based care management models such as the Bridge Model of transitional care, CHaSCI collaborates with practitioners, educators, researchers, and public health leaders on education, research, and advocacy to advance health care’s ability to be responsive to social and economic barriers to health. As part of this advocacy work, CHaSCI housed the organizing efforts for the consensus study in partnership with several leaders in social work practice, research, and education.
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