SFGH Health Advocates Stage II Study

Adverse social circumstances like hunger and food insecurity can have dramatic, negative impacts on the health of vulnerable children. In safety-net settings, the prevalence of these adverse social circumstances are high. The investigators are proposing an RCT on an intervention based in a large urban pediatric urgent care setting that addresses patients' social circumstances. In an earlier RCT conducted in a similar setting, this intervention helped decrease total social needs and parent reported child health on a single item measure. In this study, the investigators will collect a more robust set of survey data including detailed measures of child health and non-invasive biological data from children and caregivers accompanying those children. Families will be randomized according to a pre-determined randomization schedule into the social needs-focused intervention. In one arm, the investigators will offer the intervention, which involves in-person navigation around available social and legal resources; in the other, the investigators will offer written information to participants on available community resources. All patients in both arms will be followed over a six month period to capture information about changes in participants' social needs, health and health care utilization.