Our Impact on Clinics
Pediatricians understand the importance of food, housing, and other critical resources to their patients' health, and the guidelines of their profession mandate that they discuss these issues with families during well-child visits. Studies show that low-income families, too, trust their pediatricians to talk with them about these issues and want them to do so. And yet in many clinics, doctors are reluctant to talk with families about these needs, because their own time is too limited to address needs families identify, and their clinics don't generally have the infrastructure to do so.
Project HEALTH changes the equation by bringing in that infrastructure, empowering pediatricians to discuss resource needs with families. Thirty percent of the families seen at our 16 Family Help Desks have been referred by a provider who identified a resource need during the family's visit. In some of our clinical sites, nearly 50% of families come to the Family Help Desk from provider referrals.
