Grant: Operating Grant: SPOR PIHCI Network: Quick Strikes

Social conditions that impact the health of individuals have been labeled the social determinants of health and include a person's income security, food security, housing status and educational attainment. This project occurs in the context of a growing number of calls for evidence to inform interventions that address social determinants within health care organizations. Our objective is to conduct an implementation evaluation of an online tool that addresses income security at several primary care sites and to assess the short-term impact on patients. This tool works by prompting the health provider to screen for poverty, and if identified, to recommend benefits or other financial resources, as well as local community resources to assist with obtaining these benefits. We will engage a total of six primary care clinics in this study, three in Ontario and three in Manitoba. These clinics all serve large numbers of patients with complex health and social needs. Using continuing medical education materials that have been created by study team members, we will introduce the concept of screening for poverty and intervening on this important social determinant. We will collect input from these sessions to inform the development of the tool. We will engage a group of patients in Toronto and a group in Winnipeg to provide input on the tool as well. We will then pilot the tool in these six clinics and collect immediate feedback from patients. After the tool has been in use for three months we will send online surveys to all providers at the six clinics and invite them to participate in focus groups. Finally, we will follow-up with patients at one month after they complete using the tool to collect further input and get a sense of how its use had an impact on their knowledge of benefits and ability to access them. All data collected will inform the ongoing refinement and development of the tool.