PolicyLab

We’re excited to kick off the year 2021 with a new policy tool—the issue brief. This new resource—which lives on our refreshed “policy tools” landing page—features expert perspectives on a wide range of children’s health issues. Keep reading to learn more about our first two issue briefs:

1) Screening for Social Needs in Pediatrics: How Can We Ensure it is Family-centered and Effective? 

This issue brief—collaboratively written by an interdisciplinary group of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia pediatricians and social workers—offers guidance on strategies health care systems and providers can adopt to effectively screen and meet families’ social needs. Be sure to read the brief here as well as a new blog post, written by PolicyLab Faculty Scholar Katie McPeak, MD, highlighting the importance of implementing a family-centered approach to avoid the unintended consequences social needs screening can create.

2) Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Parenting Teens

In this issue brief, PolicyLab researcher and Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow Kali Hackett, MSW, MPH, outlines why teen parents may experience challenges in accessing mental health care, illustrates the pressing need for innovative services, policies, and programs that close the gaps in care for parenting teens, and provides concrete recommendations for various stakeholders to improve access and connection to quality mental health services for this unique population. Read the issue brief and a related blog post focused on this important issue.

We look forward to developing and sharing more of these briefs so that we can continue to inform policy change through the expertise of our talented team members.