A TWO PAPER EXAMINATION OF THE SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH THROUGH CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE INTERVENTIONS IN HEALTHCARE SOCIAL WORK
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Abstract
The following is a two-paper exploration of the cultural assessment of the social determinants of health (SDOH). Social circumstances have a significant impact on health outcomes. Medical care alone is estimated to account for approximately 20% of health outcomes, whereas social circumstances, deemed the SDOH, account for nearly 80-90% of health outcomes (Magnan, 2017; Hood et al., 2016). The SDOH are defined as the non-medical and non-physiological factors which influence health behaviors and health outcomes. The utilization of the SDOH in health care requires acknowledgement that the structural, social, and cultural conditions are not independent from health, rather are enmeshed within health outcomes (Hood et al., 2016). The mitigation of health disparities requires acknowledgement of racism as a social driver of health with intervention in addressing the cultural and social determinant of health. This study was conducted in two phases: the first phase utilized quantitative methods to explore the assessment of the social and cultural determinants of health and the second phase utilized qualitive semi-structured interviews to explore culturally responsive antiracist care in hospital-based social work practice. Aims for the study include: examining the frequency and degree to which social workers in a large urban pediatric hospital address the SDOH and CDOH: their degree of comfort in addressing the CDOH, utilizing cultural humility, and providing culturally appropriate services; and elucidate facilitators and barriers to delivering culturally responsive antiracist interventions that address socially and culturally determined health outcomes. Independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA), thematic analysis and sensitizing concepts, were utilized to analyze the data. Findings emphasized the effects of field work experience on assessment of the SDOH and CDOH. Comfort with the CDOH, cultural humility, and provision of culturally responsive antiracist care was higher in those with minoritized identities. Social workers are also engaging in antiracist care at the structural, institutional, and interpersonal levels in the provision of their practice. Implications are emphasized for social work education, healthcare social work practice, and for future research.