Community and Public Health and Social Determinants

 Directions For this unit’s discussion, we will explore incorporating social determinants into population health management. Diabetes is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Research indicates that external or upstream factors consistently affect individuals diagnosed with diabetes, influencing self-management. Therefore, research recognizes the need to consider the social determinants of diabetes and health along with individual factors in developing clinical strategies focused on long-term health improvement (Clark & Utz, 2014). You are the Director of Population Health Department of a not-for profit healthcare system. The Chief Population Health Officer (CPHO) has scheduled a meeting with you to discuss the impact of social determinants of health on the health outcomes and prognosis of the individuals with diabetes. The CPHO believes that to be able to succeed in population health management initiatives, health systems must take into account the impact of social determinants and health determinants. The CPHO asked you, in preparation for this meeting, to conduct a literature review to examine current understanding of the social determinants and health determinants affecting health of individuals with diabetes, and to provide a corresponding report of the findings. References Clark, M. L. & Utz, S. W. (2014). Social determinants of type 2 diabetes and health in the United States. World Journal of Diabetes, 5(3), 296-304. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4058734/ (Links to an external site.) Handmaker, K. (2017, March). Incorporating social determinants into population health management. Healthcare Financial Management, 60-64. Initial Post: Prepare your recommendations for creating a population health management program focused on incorporating social determinants and health determinants. Include the information about conducting a community health assessment and collecting diverse, relevant data pertaining to the population. In your recommendations, be sure to discuss details about stratifying patients according to risk to identify subgroups and individuals most likely to benefit from targeted interventions, and implementation plan for solutions based on the findings. Include the opportunities of developing partnerships with different community-based healthcare provider organizations in effort to support comprehensive care coordination.