Social Drivers of Health

When we think about social support, something to consider is resources or training regarding caregiving. Something I think would be extremely beneficial for providers would be to include the caregivers in the patients’ care and decision making. Our health is impacted by the people who we are close to, so bringing those social, cultural, and contextual factors into cancer care is very important.

Chiara Acquati, PhD, LMSW, FAOSW

One of my biggest concerns is knowing the challenges that we have with distress screening. I want to make sure that we focus on resources to present to patients at the appropriate time. There might be various time frames that patients present with problems across multiple health systems. Once providers identify issues, there needs to be a responsibility for addressing them.

Terry Portis, RN, BSN, MBA

There are community level safety and social justice issues that interfere with people being able to focus on their cancer care and connecting with timely services. I think another factor would be comorbidity and accessing medications for side effects. We might have financial aid for cancer treatment, but patients don't always have access to finances or financial services to afford these medications.

Lailea Noel, PhD, MSW

The two biggest challenges I see patients struggling with in practice are financial strain and low health literacy. It’s incredibly challenging to navigate our complex health system. Making care more accessible for patients with low health literacy is how I first got interested in social drivers of health.

Sunil Kripalani, MD, MSc, SFHM, FACP